Quote: Anakin Skywalker " ...if they want to do it yearly.'"
Then they have to accept that Wigan or Saints or Leeds could go down. Might make them think about doing something to close the gap, I guess.
With a 3 year cycle you have to accept that a SL team could reach the play-offs (potentially even the grand final) and be relegated. Or a Championship team might go up never having finished better than 4th during the 3 years.
There's no perfect solution, every choice is a sacrifice.
The failure of licensing wasn't that it was imperfect, it was that it wouldn't admit it was. Eventually it was faced with a question it couldn't duck and its unacknowledged flaws were exposed.