There are other ways of shortening that gap without creating such a disconnection between teams and their respective leagues, such as salary caps, 51% fan owner

There are other ways of shortening that gap without creating such a disconnection between teams and their respective leagues, such as salary caps, 51% fan ownership and proper financial regulations that aren't as much of a joke as FFP. Besides which, the genesis of ESL has nothing to do with which teams play each other. It's because the bigger teams have dug themselves deep financial holes - to be fair to them partially due to the lack of things like a salary cap - that they want to get out of. As others have said you're completely wrong in saying that "people don't want to watch a tiny team from nowhere vs a giant in UCL". I'm not saying that nobody does, but they're a very different kind of fan than the people who buy season tickets.