Clemson moves up somewhat if you re-rank by avg instead of total class ranking. But they are still not anything like consistently top 5. Clemson's 2013 recruiting class would not move at all if ranked by average - still at #15. Their 2014 recruits would be #15 instead of #16. 2015 class becomes #12 instead of #9. 2016 goes from #11 to #9. 2017 2017 is the big mover from #16 to #5. 2018 goes from #7 to #4.
By this criteria, they won the 2016 NC with the #15, #15, #12 and #9 classes. That's an average well outside of the top 10 again - much less the top 5. Clearly some combination of evaluation, development, coaching and scheme is more than sufficient for the #13 talent pool based on average to beat the clear and overwhelming #1. You have a better case for 2018. Average rating would be #8 (12, 11, 5 and 4) so even there we are talking top 10, not top 5 and the talent was heavily skewed to the younger players. That actually looks a lot like the talent situation in Austin now, with a bigger gap to make up with the upperclassmen.