Tyrese Haliburton is an excellent player, but he's the shiny new offensive toy in an era where gaudy offensive stats/efficiency are no longer scarce. Every week some player or another ends up on some sort of "historical" list for having done something that would have been impossibly impressive in any other era, but is just another day at the office within the context of modern supercharged NBA offenses. The difference is that Hali plays pretty, while Domas barrels his way to the rim on offense and absolutely gobbles up rebounds on defense, which is perhaps the least sexy measure of efficiency for both ends of the court (and is, for my money, made even more impressive given the volume of "long rebounds" that result from the typical shot profile of a modern NBA team).
I mean, if we wanna get gaudy, Sabonis is 12th on the all-time triple-doubles list and he's only 27 years old. The guy leads the league in rebounds this season and he's 8th in assists per game as a center not named Nikola Jokic while still tossing up a shade under 20 points per game. And last year, in his first full season with the Kings, they became a playoff contender in the tougher conference after over a decade-and-a-half of postseason futility. Whatever the Kings might have become if they had not traded Tyrese Haliburton, you're going to have a hard time convincing me that they would have evolved into an overnight success the way the Kings did after acquiring Domas. His impact has been incalculably large, particularly in the ways he's helped unlock Fox's next several gears, which include All-Star, All-NBA, and fringe MVP considerations.
That said, this "traded the wrong guard" argument is terribly misguided in its willful ignorance of context. And the media are fickle in an online age that's constantly desperate for novelty. NBA journos are always chasing fresh narratives. Last season, the Kings' rise up the standings and Fox's leveling up were the surprise narrative that took the league by storm. This season, the Pacers' rise up the standings and Haliburton's leveling up are the surprise narrative that's taking the league by storm. They can have their moment. They've earned it. The Kings are trying to figure out how to be more than just a flash in the pan, and we'll see if the Pacers have what it takes to pose any kind of threat come playoff time (if their putrid defense doesn't drop them back into the play-in bracket again before season's end).