I’ve seen a few people make this point and I believe it reveals more about them, than it says about the clubs and players. I’m amazed by how many people are now openly admitted that the PL for them is in large part just an extended qualifying competition for Europe.
Give athletes and the sporting departments of football clubs a bit more credit. Most footballers and managers compete for the love of the game and proving themselves. League structures exist in all sports all around the world and are proven as a successful sporting format.
People are genuinely lamenting the death of a top four race, which I am amazed by. This has been the antithesis of what domestic football has been about for over a 100 years.
I think you're missing the point. The key thing is the primacy of the national leagues. That primacy has rested on several things. One is that it remains the main focus of most fans. Another is that they have been the only
Leagues - the CL is just a tournament. SL is
not a tournament - it is in effect a NA-style League with playoffs. A third is that even for clubs to whom the CL is more important than the national league, performing well in the national league is absolute necessity, because otherwise you don't get to the CL. The CL has never been seen by anyone as a threat to the primacy of national leagues, for that reason: It's a lucrative bonus tournament you get if you do well, and what defines "do well" is how you do in your own league.
In short - the national league is the baseline, for all clubs. This breaks that link, which really changes everything. It turns that level above into the main focus, leaving the national leagues as an afterthought which clubs can care or not care about as they choose - and which will mean less for the financial baseline than the SL does. Like the FA cup now.
That does not mean that people only care about the EPL because it decides who gets to the CL. On the contrary, it shows that people care about the national leagues remaining the primary focus.