Gaetz dropped a notch when he filed the motion to vacate and managed to oust McCarthy, IMO. McCarthy was doing as well as could be expected with the very small majority, haunted by the number of Rhino's in the house. Furthermore, I believe the timing could not have been worse.
He just regained that ground by resigning as the nominee for AG as I, too, believe he would have faced a long hard road to confirmation and his assessment that the new AG needs to be front and center on day one to support president Trump's agenda.
It's a shame he has already resigned his house seat; hopefully that seat will be filled by another Republican in the special election and Gaetz will find a home in another critical (non-confirmed) cabinet position. No doubt he is square behind the president's agenda.