I agree the SC isn't doing much for the sport, but increasing or even eliminating it is surely going to be no panacea.
Who are these great swathes of players we've lost to Union and the NRL? Joe Burgess, Sam Burgess and Jammers, granted, but Sam Tomkins was only gone for five minutes. Hodgson and Cooper's loss was hardly greeted with wailing and gnashing of teeth; they weren't thought of as anything that special at the time. I think you could say the same about the Burgess twins. And let's not forget, to be fair, we get a fair few from the NRL and Union ourselves.
Losses to Union? Chris Ashton?
We've got better wingers than him at Wigan now. Apart from him, the only other one that springs to mind is Ben Te'o, and he came from the NRL.
I'm not saying that it may be an increasing trend which should worry us (Sarginson, J Burgess, etc), but the idea that SL *right now* has been heavilly weakened by defections seems a bit wide of the mark to me.