What you are talking about isn't fairness but equality which isn't how football has ever worked, football has never been fair. Two cities with vastly different populations can't operate with the same budgets unless you artificially create equality which isn't fair for the one that is bigger and wealthier. To be clear I like US sports and their socialist(
) structure but it's based on varsity teams and the fact that they essentially get the best young players for free while barely spending resources on their developments, professional sports in the US are a business for billionaires and easy way to make hundreds of millions per year. So it's important for them to have an equalitarian system in a closed league because that's where the excitement come from the fact that the worst team can climb the ranks by adding the best rookies to their teams.