https://www.cbr.com/golden-girls-coco-butler-pilot/

The Golden Girls broke boundaries with its main cast of older women, but it originally broke even more with the lost fifth member of the hit sitcom.

Sophia really worked in small doses in the earlier seasons. When she turned into a robot of insults made her less funny. She added to the show for sure and became one of its stars. I think it would have still worked with the gay butler being Dorothy's foil. When Estelle had to read her lines off the cards became such a distraction IMHO. When the writers went for cheap humorous line after line in the scripts ruined the show IMHO.