And Image Comics should have pretty much just rolled wheelbarrows full of gold up to Scott Williams during its heyday (and Jim Lee still should).

Why did DC never put much thought into inker recruitment?

Image tried, but fell apart.  Dark Horse tried, but seemed to put all its eggs in one fairly unpleasant basket.  Companies like Crossgen, Continuity, Charlton, Valiant, Malibu, and a number of smaller publishers all gave it a good go and died for one reason or another.  But it's just strange to me that in this era of multi-billion dollar movie franchises based on super-hero comic books that some movie studio or multi-millionaire tycoon looking to become a billionaire hasn't funded a good ten-series interconnected super-hero universe, perhaps recruiting some classic writers and artists to get them going.

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko are all sadly gone, but Jim Starlin and David Michelinie (you know, the guy whose work has been adapted in three ANT-MAN movies, two AQUAMAN movies, three VENOM movies, not to mention IRON MAN on which the entire MCU was founded) are still around.  Steve Englehart, Roy Thomas, Don McGregor, John Byrne, Frank Miller, Walt Simonson, and some other greats also seem like guys who deserve a knock on the door from someone wanting to make a billion dollars.

Sure, he did plenty of covers (there and everywhere else in the 70s), and although we got to see him handle characters like the Hulk, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, the Inhumans, Conan, John Carter, Captain America and Adam Warlock, but he never got a run on the Avengers, which would seem to have been a perfect fit.

And Ron Frenz in a lot of places.  He's got that 1960s/70s storytelling down to a tee.  He's be terrific on a Silver Surfer series. Or Fantastic Four.  Or just about anything you'd want to have a classic feel.

I think this is a bit harsh. Murphy Anderson and Karl Kesel come to mind. I also enjoyed the team of Steve Mitchell's inks over Norm Breyfogle's pencils on Batman in the late 80s/early 90s.

In terms of recruitment, it was DC that brought Rudy Nebres, Gerry Talaoc and Romeo Tanghal to American comics.

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I think the list of failed attempts answers that quesrtion -there's not an insatiable need for another super hero universe. Things like 'Invincible' and 'The Boys' have worked because they have one specific thing on their mind (and even 'Invincible' has struggled when they tried to expand into a 'universe' of titles.)

For non comic fans, I think there are plenty of super heroes. Who out there wishes there were 10 more that didn't have anything to do with the ones they already like?

I've always wanted an Alan Davis Inhumans story. I chatted with him at a con recently and he said he'd love to do one - so why hasn't it happened??

"there's not an insatiable need for another super hero universe"

(Malibu was also big for a while, until Marvel bought them and shut them down.)

I would have liked to see him on HAWKMAN and IRON MAN too--he would have brought power to Hawkman and his Tony Stark would have been classic.