So they're afraid to stand up to bullies
More like interested in preventing a war. Trying for one final round of diplomacy instead a few outdated weaponry to a country that was not expected to defend itself.
they were told to by decent governments.
More like Ukraine's resistance showed that this would be more than an empty gesture.
Schroeder, Merkel, Steinmeier, Scholz
Merkel was the only Western politician who was actually trying to confront Russia diplomatically after Crimea. While politicians like Johnson made one Russian oligarch a lord because he donated money to the Tories.
German Ostpolitik proofed to be misguided in the end, but it was enforced by its' previous great success stories. Detente, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the integration of Eastern Europe into the West. And the cheap gas helped keeping the German industry afloat during the many crisis in the 2000s and 2010s, and thus the European economy. That is something people should remember before they make baseless accusations regarding the integrity of ots' architects.
the results are a net deficit of credibility in CEE
We shall see. PiS was always deeply hostile to Germany, no change there. The Baltic states are more than ever asking for German military aid and presence. Same for the Czech Republic, and Hungary (which PiS has been happily suppporting) remains a Russian mole. Hardly any change at all.