Nah, you are entitled to your point of view, though as you expected, I don’t agree with it. What follows is just common logic.
I highly doubt it had anything to do with pay. Step back and think about this in a general sense. The new guy is the leader and the other guy was his holdover assistant. If the two aren’t meshing and it could not be worked out over half a year or more, it is pretty obvious which one would have to go. It would have been the same if they worked at a Subway or a tire store.
If you as the GM had preferred the old school style of hitting approach, you would never have hired Albert in the first place.