well, as you said it's a part of the problem.
There are others too

I've seen many 100%+ teams start season trying only to give up and tank if they suffer an early loss. Where is their competitive spirit? Only interested if they can roll everyone over and get 1st?
so back to economy again.
Ok, I have a wealthy team but most of the other managers not.
If you have to pay 30 or more tokens for a single DC, MC or ST 18-19 y.o. , 90% q, so 150-200 tokens for a new team and see that you don't have chances for the championship, tanking is a temptation.
In the old version you could built a whole new team with 30-40 tokens.