The thing that might be blinding Doug, as a reasonably successful business man, is that he wants our players to be 'assets' and for the club to grow their value, to fund a) our losses and b) our future player purchases.
Older players certainly have less asset value and less margin to grow value, so maybe that's why he's less keen to go after them.
Additionally, loan players are not assets (as we don't own them), and he clearly seemed to use a strategy of not using them last season, despite evidence from the previous season, that they really helped our push into the playoffs.
As fans, we just want 'good' players here, and if Browne is as good as Preston fans think, and we are led to believe, he might be worth it, to help the younger players, and give some steel to our midfield.