I still think overall that he’s in a better place than he was at Chelsea. Although his game time is limited at the moment, it’s understandable when you can see who is in front of him and he is closer to playing in the first team than he would have been at a Chelsea. They don’t take time or have the patience to really develop players and will usually buy them in.
I think De Zerbi does like him as a player but goes for experience in the league, which is kind of understandable. He’s spoken more than once about wanting to find him more game time and so I could see that if a loan did happen, it might be more with a view to get him playing time rather than a permanent move away - I get the sense he’s in their plans overall. It’s likely Caicedo and Mac Alister might move on in the summer, so that’ll be the best time to see where he is.
De Zerbi is talked about as being really, really good at developing players, so I don’t see the time at Brighton as being wasted, though obviously it would be better if he played more.