An interesting alternative would be division I/division II/division III EC, so lets say 12, 16 or 24 teams in each division would play separate championships, with elimination/promotion each EC year. As in hockey or now nations league in soccer. For a 16 team division, an example would be something like 2 groups of 8 (first 6 advance, last two go to the relegation round), then similar as is now. And the last two (pairs of) teams would play a round of 4, with the last two teams being relegated.
In fact, that's the way European Tournaments works on u19, u17 and u15 NT. There are 3 divisions and top there also exist promotions/delegations on those.
I'd be very glad to apply this format in BB too.