The price generally doesn't matter too much if it's a couple million higher as we can do restructures, extensions, and cuts to make up for it. For me, the only excuses not to get the deal done are if the draft capital is overwhelming (a 1st rounder+), or if Sneed just said no. If the difference is a 3-year deal to a 4-year deal, then that's on Ballard for being stubborn.
Ballard should be under scrutiny for this, as he would have not only not gotten the deal done (if we miss out on Sneed), but also wasting valuable time in FA and missing out on possible players. We'll probably never hear on which specific players we missed out while going after Sneed, but there were some.