That’s not to say you swear off pragmatism. Larry Hogan, Charlie Baker, McCain, etc. they may not be my cup of tea but I don’t think think other Republicans should undermine them in their state wide elections.
You have to take what you can get and people like that are very often the most realistic Conservative option in blue or purple states. Winning is still important and if you apply too many purity tests you’re just going to end up losing.
In Arizona for example, Republicans controlled both senate seats and the governors seat as recently at 2016. Now it’s all blue (I guess Sinema is technically an independent). Because the Arizona GOP is not reading the room in who they nominate.
Same with abortion. Full abortion bans will fail in many states, fight for what you can win and what has public approval and then slowly move the line back. DeSantis did a good job of this with 6 weeks.