Yes, a helper makes a big difference.
Perhaps then it was possible to ride the final section 12 seconds faster and finishing in the group of place 5 to 8.
I tried to buy a better helper a few times, but did not succeed. The best suited helper of my team is riding the Giro, unfortunately he was not good enough to be in the 1st peleton in s4.
And this stage was in one of the previous seasons also. There an even more dissapointing result for Fagan as this 15th place, the difference is that Fagan has TC bonus now and back then he did not. So, this stage looks very suited for Fagan (who could not challenge the favorites), but in reality it is not. I guess that flat counts a lot in the GV, and Fagan his flatskill is low.
This stage (with a very different GV) is the speciality of Fagan :

Good luck with your very ambitious goals of
Platacis and "
fromHeaven". It would be very impressive if you achieve these goals.
To me it is too hard to estimate (because of his low flat and very bad sprint) on what GC place Fagan will end up in this weird Giro.