I think most of it is observations. If you look at the work done by Bene on contract renewals and his public interviews, signings like ADM, Pogba and Paredes directly contradict him and our work in ditching Ramsey, Dybala, Arthur etc, so I dont think that either he or Bini, the guy working under him, chose that direction.
Surely it must be Max asking for specifically these players or these kind of players. There are multiple reports he requested champions this summer, he has publicly spoken out against giving too much responsibility to youngsters, there are reports Allegri requested a big say in transfers to return etc. It's not a fact, but I think its a rather logical assumption that those 3 or 2/3 were Max requests.