You have to also remember that Raw has been short a couple women. Summer is out, Paige is out, Emma was out (then kept off TV for reasons no one will ever understand), Bayley came up post-draft. For a while, the division was just Charlotte and Sasha because they were the only stars they had. Nia needed to be built, and Dana and Alicia were just jobbers because they needed people Sasha and Charlotte could beat/tag with.
Smackdown, by comparison, benefitted from having all their women ready to go from jump, and only have one ready-made star to protect (Becky). Even when they lost Eva, Nikki was there to take her place. Now this isn't to excuse the poor booking decisions made on Raw, but I would argue that side has had a higher hill to climb due to external circumstances.