in the past days just 2 teams, could buy those teams(and they also trained, but when they start with better players they couldn't catch up).
Also your monster standard is pretty low, since you arguing with team who could pay there bills as your main examples(Laim ie could finance his team, till they drop in skills). Also China/germany/turkey ain't so week, that you easily pile up money play in the top "just" for a shot to steal the cup. Today there are plenty of good players out there, you don't need to burn massiv funds(but yes some, at least when you fail), to get a shot at it.