For me, when it comes to all-rounders it’s always the overall value they add to a cricket team which I consider when picking them, and what you’d gain or lose by picking specialists instead.
There’s always going to be a compromise somewhere - there has never been an all-rounder who batted like Sobers and bowled like Imran, so invariably either your batting or bowling will be weakened to some degree when you pick an all-rounder over a specialist.
It seems that we (CW collectively) are generally more forgiving of a loss of strength in bowling than batting. I suppose this is at least in part a product of the modern era where 6 batsmen/4 bowlers is the norm, the prevailing wisdom being that you need as much batting strength as possible but that four bowlers is enough to take the 20 wickets required. Projecting this into the mythical level-above-Test-cricket match against the Martian XI, the school of thought seems to be that you need a great batsman coming in at 6 – because a merely good one won’t cut it at that level – but that your four bowlers, whoever they are, will unquestionably be enough so that you can get away with Sobers, Kallis or even Hammond as the fifth bowler. A sixth great batsman is a necessity, the thinking seems to be, but a fifth world class bowler is redundant.
I’m not sure I necessarily agree with that, and think the choice for me would often depend on the balance of the team and the opposition. Obviously, if you’ve got a player as great as Sobers available to you then you pick him – the relative loss of bowling quality through having a good rather than great fifth bowler is more than made up for by the extra runs he’ll contribute. But if you decide that this level above Test cricket is going to be run feast – and if, say, you’ve got someone like Gilchrist playing the role essentially of another specialist bat, then I can certainly see the point of playing someone like Miller or Botham. Not great batsmen, but good enough to play their role and score valuable runs and, importantly, giving the bowling attack five exceptional bowlers rather than four. Depending on the Alien XI you’re facing, that might make all the difference.
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