I think the hour when Utopia was released mid-day in Europe vs end of the night in the US / start of the night in Asia has something to do with that many Europeans.
They should have released the teams all at once after the Friday update for ex (so that every team would have a first game with current players (or new players would have a malus of GS), etc.
Would have been a real management game with equivalent teams to start with, for all of us.
Guys coming in first maybe avoided the bullish trainer/veteran market ...