The idea of the current system is to have at least 1 team per division relegate unconditionally -- no second chances.
Whose idea? I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but you're making that up.
I think it's a great idea, actually. And not just because I'm a curling fan. This suggestion — not coincidentally, from a Canadian — is simply the Page playoff system (without a final) used in curling tournaments.
The BB team. I am not making this up -- I have brought up proposals for relegation playoff structure that involves the entire bottom four. The answer was that being able to tank for a top pick and avoid relegation at the same time is undesired. Therefore, guaranteed relegation is a must for the league structure to work as desired.
The problem is 8th spot can be even 9th pick in unbalanced divisions. It's rare but it happens sometimes that directly relegating team would make play offs in the other conferences.