For me, he's a wide forward. Not a winger, not a striker. But at the moment, he's our best option as a striker because the team are more functional with him there.
At Watford, Silva played an outright 4-3-3 mostly. That meant Richarlison could play on the left in the channel.
For whatever reason, he doesn't play 4-3-3 here, meaning Richarlison - if he's wide - is more of a winger, and while I agree entirely he's great in the channels driving at goal, it's easy to frustrate him if you put 2 markers (a winger and an fb) on him.
Central, his movement and skill means they have to dedicate 2 players to him. That's either a fb and a cb or a cb and a cm, meaning either way there is more space for the rest of our attackers. That's a good thing.
Then, you have his pace and energy and intelligence - in tandem with Gylfi - in pressing. Yesterday, look how many times in the 2nd half him and Gylfi pressed their CBs back. It forced them to go long and that negated Bournemouth's strengths.