Well I am not a long timer so maybe I am not a typical ABBL manager but I can say last season when I promoted I was in debt. While I was in debt I did have a carefully crafted team which included two unique forwards Lawrance and SPerbert who cost me about $5 million to buy but who played far better than their salaries suggested.
I also had two youngish trainees Barton (24) and Kumar (22) but they were good enough to play in games and not cause an automatic loss. I trained them every week last season while competing hard and still managed to get the third best record in the ABBL and made the semi-finals where Whitebeard beat me. However part of the reason I was able to achieve that is exactly because of what you said. Several teams were not trying very hard like WA IS A DUMP, Baxter Bogans, Black Label Society and more.
At the end of the season there was quite a buy up some like Koopasaurus buying up massivly on the final weekend.
Certainly Lewisham Wombats and Whitebeard were trying to win but there was a bit of a gap between them and the next teams like Aussie Pride, Billy Hoyles Boys and me.
This season with money in the bank, more advanced trainees and a great new center who was a massive upgrade on the one that took me to third best record last seasons I actually thought I would be competing. But with most playing normal or crunch time against me and two two point losses I found myself in the relegation zone precicely because people were competing. Some of them were the new teams Slam ! and Urmammas but also older teams like Koopasaurus saw that this was going to be a tough season. I would agree though that there is more competition to avoid 7th than to get to 2nd but that is partially due to the dominance of Whitebeard whose teams seems virtually unbeatable. Urmammas crunched him and still lost by a lot.
This season I tried very hard to get a young Aussie trainee. I wanted an 18 year old MVP, maybe I was too choosy but despite bookmarking all of them every week and bidding son several I never could get one and ended up getting a 21 year old superstar instead. I was certainly willing to train a young Aussie.
Part of all of this problem is the structure. If you win division II you get a million dollars, and a much improved income for all of the next season so teams can go all in and they get bailed out. There is no money bonus for winning the ABBL. So if you went all in to win and ended up with a massive debt in the ABBL the way teams like hopelessly addicted and I did to get out of Division II you would be in huge trouble the following season and maybe looking at getting relegated. Teams have to ask themselves is it worth the risk? In division II it is worth the risk because the reward is massive. In the ABBL there is no financial reward so while the status is priceless you risk massive damage to your team.
I will certainly be willing to take the risk when the time is right, Koopasaurus already has with his Radford team, Urmammas and Slam ! seem to have no fear. Unfortunately all four of us are on the Whitebeard side. On the Wombats (Big 8) side things look wide open. Current leader Bell Park SuperCats is three games and 450 PD behind Whitebeard. Doesn't mean things will end up like that but certainly there is an opportunity in the Big 8 to make a move.
Long ramble I know, sorry if it is too long.