I'm talking about situations where teams can easily get away with playing their lessor players in the cup without even having to worry about it affecting their training or gameshape.
For example, let's say my II league opponent gets knocked out in round 1 because they have to play an ABBL team that they are unable to compete with, while I get a run of IV bots and/or new players for the first few weeks. I'm clearly at a huge advantage compared to my league opponent who didn't have the same opportunity at an easy cup run like me.
If a team gets a hard match in the cup and loses first round they have the advantage of being able to maintain gameshape and train much more easily.
This is also entirely possible under a seeded draw. There's nothing stopping you from throwing your cup match if you don't want to be in the cup because it's easier to train and maintain gameshape by being eliminated. At least everyone is afforded a fairly equal opportunity in the first place though, from which they are then able to make a decisions about what's best for their team.