I thought it was the investor group that declined all the board members, granted RH was part of that group, but nevertheless I seem to recall that the group had set the bar so high, that JW couldn't find any that fulfilled all the criteria's

This was one of the criteria's in the contract with the investor group, and if not fulfilled JB would have had to hand over his 1 mil preferred shares with 100 mil voting rights to the investor group for next to nothing.

at the time it very much looked like a trick by the investor group to get their hands on said shares,

I wasn't aware that these directors was offered up to RH after he took over, that is news to me and rightly a concern, I wonder if money played a part of RHs reason for not taking any of these directors on