Not necessarily - Benard just isn't suited to the Premier League whereas Gray is albeit he's at the last chance saloon. If he struggles this season he'll likely be out the door next season.
Townsend is probably similiar quality to Walcott agreed but is more of a committed player and less injury prone. You could argue had we had Walcott on the bench at times last season when we had 2 goalkeepers and a bunch of kids we could have gotten Europe...
Walcott is better than Townsend IMO. I'm more than happy to let him go, but I think there's an argument we could have found 1 or 2 extra results if we had him as an option last year. He offered something different than everyone else.