I would certainly not mind a five-man bench, but not now, because the pen is so thin. It's literally quantity over quality until Robertson and Hunter (both of whom can go more than one) get back.
It would also help if we had a better starting rotation. The big bullpen is not merely analytics-driven; Gabe (after his disastrous first game) has shown himself to be perfectly willing to let his starters go deep but only a few of them actually can. Would be a big deal if Pivetta has found himself.
I also don't feel like the five-man bench actually led to better hitters pinch-hitting all that often, because managers still like those glove/utility guys so much. If this team had a five-man bench right now and Herrera was back they'd probably have a glove-first OF (which is what Altherr was) and Rodriguez as the utility guy, along with Knapp, Bruce and Kingery. In our case Quinn is the glove-first OF but it remains to be seen whether he can A) play or B) hit. I don't think they'd replace Rodriguez with a better hitter.
We were gonna lose this game 1-0 anyway I guess. But we're getting to see the bottom of the bullpen (Gabe's definitely managing for tomorrow now).