Russell definitely did everything he needed to to win that race, and almost almost overcame two extra pitstops to do so, but the third finally stopped him. One thing he certainly did was outperform Bottas in the same car. Not sure why Mercedes gave Bottas another year when they obviously could have put Russell in that seat, unless they don't want Russell and Hamilton going head to head.
I'm generally positive on Albon, and feel like he has had some terrible luck with Hamilton ruining both of his early chances for a podium, but I agree that he just doesn't quite seem to click in the second RB seat. But who has, really? Not sure if Perez is the type of driver that Red Bull is looking for, but I'm sure he will get picked up in 2022 by someone. The options for Red Bull maybe aren't what they are looking for, so I wouldn't be surprised if they keep Albon for one more season. 2022 will be another interesting driver mix-up, I think.