Hiruzen led the village for around 45 years if not longer. The Sannin became his students when he was 24, so he fought in all 3 Shinobi Wars, retired, lost his wife and then had to take the mantle of Hokage again when he clearly wasn't interested any longer
Konoha exists because of Hiruzen and the fandom is too obsessed with him not personally being a dad to orphan Naruto to see that he's a wildly successful leader
It exists because his predecessors created the base of the village and made it almost impossible for him to fuck up (he fucked up anyway)
He let Orochimaru get away with experimenting on members of his own village including
pregnant women, unborn children, and his ninja. Enma (his summon partner) told him not to do it and he STILL let him go. This
WOULD NOT have been an issue with the first 2 Hokage
Hashirama killed someone he considered a brother and was willing to kill anyone that threatened the village and I don't even need to go over how ruthless Tobirama can be if needed.
This gave Orochimaru the chance to come back and almost destroy the village, kill Hiruzen (leaving the village without a kage), and corrupt Sasuke
This isn't even getting into how bad he fucked up with the Uchiha/Danzo stuff
Remember, this is the same person that loved to preach "the will of fire" and talk about how he sees everyone in the village as family