Anyway, yeah, I think my experience is that throwing in the towel at serious SF training at the higher levels, if you are in a country with lots of divisions, is probably the smart thing to do.
Kind of weird that there are at least two serious SF trainers in Canada's division I.
I personally think differently than you. It can be a pretty good way to get to the top, as you can use your huge training profits to buy the other pieces to the puzzle. And if done right, you can pick up the matching pieces at other positions but no one can match you at SF (unless they also trained SFs or saved up a lot of cash to buy one).
Not to mention that if you train your SFs properly, you can keep their salaries very low until they are ready for primetime.
Run of the Mill Canadian Manager