Of course "nobody cares about 2nd tier tournaments", but the issue under discussion is how much not competing in the CL regularly affects a lesser club's chance to qualify?
At the moment, the "CL money" is helping to create a stable equilibrium at the top of European leagues that is bad for the game. The only clubs to break into the the oligopoly in the Premier League have spent to the hilt to do so. In La Liga there's the prize for third place.
If a top six PL place is accessible to any club with a solid foundation and a good season under its belt, and the second tier comp is as lucrative (in terms of prize money, if not gates) as the first tier, it might give some of those clubs a rung to the top table.
Anyway, if you don't like that: start the 64 clubs in one pot, draw three rounds of entirely random fixtures and send the 32 sides that earn the most points / GD out of the three rounds through to the usual (seeded) group stage. :o
