Its not immaterial. Not many teams have a striker who can get 20 prem goals a season on anything that resembles a consistent basis. Where do we find a Suarez or Lewandowski? There aren't there so we have to settle for what we can get. We need first and foremost, a striker that gets the primary task of his job done, all this other stuff should come after.
Anyways looks like he's going to Pool. If he gets 20+ goals which he could well do especially with the better supply, I doubt they'll be many complaining about how he can't do some other things. He's threatened to blow up and could very well do.
He's not a poacher with average ball striking technique like Bent who's game is almost solely based on his speed so that's a moot point. He's a big target man, with a better all round game than what most give him credit for.
It is immaterial because a 20 goal striker whose overall quality of play isn't up to a high standard will inhibit the other attackers around from performing at their optimal level when compared with a striker who might score 15, but has the ability to set up plenty of goals for the other players around him. As to where we could find a Lewandowski or Suarez type striker, there's no ironclad formula so you have to either sign a player at that level (which Benteke isn't), or sign a younger version who has the potential to develop into a similar kind of player in 2 or 3 seasons (which he isn't either).
What we need isn't someone who has the ability to score goals and add little else in terms of passing or general ability. We already have that kind of a player in Hernandez, who despite all the criticism scored 50 goals in his first three seasons at United at an average on slightly more than 16 per season, higher than Benteke has in a similar kind of timeframe, and with a lot of sub appearances to boot. He might not be as tall, but you don't have to be tall if you have the nose for goal in reductive terms. Benteke might be an upgrade over Chicharito, but not enough to justify a £30 million+ fee. Instead of signing Benteke, I'd much rather Hernandez who has shown the ability to be a threat as a substitute (which lines up perfectly as a foil for Rooney), displayed much improved hold-up ability in limited playing time for Madrid last season, scored at the rate of 0.71 goals per 90 minutes of playing time, and will give 120 % for the club as long as the manager puts his faith in him.
Meanwhile, we can allocate a portion of the money for a player who has the talent to develop into a Lewandowski or Benzema type of forward in the near future - someone like a Morata or Berardi or even Milik who might not be able to score 20 goals right now (Benteke wouldn't either at United FWIW as a backup to Rooney in a 1 striker system), but have the potential to become one of the better strikers around Europe by the time Rooney is about to hang up his boots at United.
Liverpool can have him and his inflated fee. Lots of players are projected to do better with greater quality around them, or threaten to blow up, but never do. And there's plenty of anecdotal evidence to support that given the performances of the likes of Ba or Bony in recent memory.
He might not be Darren Bent v2.0 per se, but the argument was provided just to counter the 20+ goal striker logic. And it's not like Benteke is in another dimension in terms of quality either. He's a good, physically imposing striker, who might do well at a club contending for Europa league berths. But that's about the ceiling of his ability according to me, as is Lukaku's who has a similar kind of potential and was jettisoned by Chelsea, a club that we are likely to contend with in the near future. More of a Tottenham or Southampton (or Liverpool given their record over the last 5 seasons minus the blip in 2013/ 2014) level player as it were. Not someone who can propel United in Europe against the heavyweight clubs, which is what a £30 million+ striker should ideally do for the club.
We have better players in every position.
