Well, some people forget that no other factory team had direct support by manufacturers. I don't want to take anything away from Prodrive and other middle man, but they simply have no chance against Citroen army of engineers.
Although I have no hard proof, I believe no other team except Citroen have invested so much money for WRC development.
That's why I will never accept Loeb as "best of the best". He just purchased his titles with huge support no one else had.