Their critical mistake is believing that strong support for soccer must precede pro/rel, as if, somehow, pro/rel would weaken support.
They don’t understand that pro/rel helps cause strong support for soccer. So, they block the very thing that can create the condition they require.
They will say, “oh, but relegation battles don’t make things that much more interesting.”
I agree. In this post, I wrote more about what really does drive the benefit, from the bottom-up, of pro/rel.