Hull were a newly promoted side with far less resources than NUFC had in 2010, yet survived fairly comfortably while also doing well in cups. That is a fantastic season, however you want to spin it. This season they have been more ambitious in their transfers, and should look to be more expansive and finish higher. We will see what happens.
Bruce is perfectly competent, IMO, anyway.
He is competent if you support Wigan or Hull. He's not competent enough to manage Newcastle (not a Newcastle being run properly anyway), he wasn't even competent enough to manage sunderland.
Would Spurs or Everton give him a job? That's the level we should be aiming for at an absolute bare minimum. Neither would go near Steve Bruce in a million years and rightly so.
Just because I hate Pardew doesn't mean I'm going to lower my expectations for the type of manager that should be leading NUFC.