Whoa, hold on now:
1.) Epstein started to take the reins in the middle of the 2002 season during Mike Port's interim reign. If you're comparing before and after, it might be fairer to compare to the 2001 season when they finished 82-79.
2.) Epstein's "several good moves to add a handful of wins" included things like "trading flotsam and jetsam for the guy would finish #2 in the 2004 Cy Young race," "signing a 2-year, $4 million contract with a third baseman who would win the batting title for the Sox in 2003,""pulling a 26-year-old future 200 IP-per-year starter off of the waiver wire from the Pirates", "finding a 110 OPS+ first baseman who was about to be exiled to Japan," and, of course, "picking up a future Hall of Famer for $1 million after he was cast aside by the Twins." That's....a lot, and only the first one required much in the way of resources.
It's no demerit to anyone to say that they don't measure up to 2003-04 Theo Epstein...but let's not pretend he lucked into a team that was one player away from a championship or that he chewed up all of the Sox' resources to do it.