I do completely get the dissatisfaction with the current set up.
What I don’t get is what the obvious better option is.
If we want the Aussie teams then fine, ditch two teams and only have 3 in Super rugby. We’ll be more competitive and have more money to retain key players, and at the same time we’ll pretty much guarantee we’ll kill any decent level of growth/development in a couple of key areas.
If we just want the Wallabies to be competitive now then fine, go open slather on OS players. Then enjoy the next 2-3 years. Even with an open slather policy I can’t see how we get above 2-3 in the World presently (being optimistic) and, IMO, it’ll pretty much guarantee we’ll be outside the top 5 and, almost certainly, the top 10, in the next 6-7 yrs. Serious pro rugby in Australia will wither and die. We’ll get a few players still come through - similiar to basketball & NFL, but we certainly won’t be better than we are now at a national level.
What we need is to give WA & Vic time to build their local pathways. The drain on our players isn’t going to reduce, so we need to widen the funnel. And WA & Vic have already made significant improvements - we should be aware of that. They have some way to go, but they are bringing local talent through. People might think this will take too long, but I reflect on the fact that 4 yrs go we struggled to fill three back row jerseys with test level players, and our choices at 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 & 15 all involved trade off decisions on players who couldn’t competently do all the key parts of their role description. Qld adopted a scorched Earth policy, NSW soon followed suite and both are in considerably better positions now then they were 3 yrs ago - even if they both have some way to go.
Personally I think the current set up is like Democracy. The worst possible system. Except all the others. It may well not survive, but I don’t see how that will be a positive.