His second design team all consisted of relatively young and junior mech designers. None of them made any exceptional achievements, but all of them bar one were experienced in working in a team environment.
This was exactly what Ves wanted. For a design team tasked with assisting his design activities, he did not need any strong personalities or talented prodigies.
Ves also declined to add any older and more competent mech designers to his design team because he wanted to train his assistant mech designers. It was much easier to indoctrinate and adjust the mentalities of younger mech designers.
If Ves employed a bunch of highly-competent but older Journeymen or Seniors, it would be virtually impossible for him to shape them into his desired forms!