That pattern is not news. What is new to me is the higher you rise, the more likely those big salaries are concentrated in fewer players. To use an example close to my heart, the top three teams having starting 5s that earn on average $60,000 per player than my starting five. My last opponent, F.Day, the Internet Lovers, boasts a starting lineup that ranges from $139,000 to $236,000; some weeks the team's DMI touches 20 million.
One thing that I've realized from my own experience and talking with a few of the past managers to win titles, is that if you get the right high salary player, they aren't actually going to cost you as much as it seems at first glance. This is especially true of NT players and even more with USA NT. Calvin Webb on my team is currently bringing in 72k a week in jersey sales alone, not too mention he contributes to the homegrown and locals category and brings more team success which means more money in merchandise and attendance. I have 938k in player salaries, but made 116k in profit last week (not counting the cup or B3). That is with no arena design, no merchandise store/tv & radio station, and with an arena that could use some more lower tier seats.
I wouldn't advise people to just go out and buy high salary guys, but if you can get a good price on one of the main NT players, then they have extremely high value. Here's a quick rundown of the last NBBA champions and how many NT players they had:
S58 Wasted Potential - 3 USA NT
S57 Atelier - 2 USA NT
S56 Atelier - 2 USA NT
S55 Atelier - 2 USA NT
S54 Flash Mashers - 2 USA NT, 1 Iran NT
S53 Upsyndrome - 3 USA NT, 1 Italy NT
S52 Upsyndrome - 3 USA NT
S51 Cassville Yuck - 2 USA NT
S50 Cassville Yuck - 2 USA NT
S49 Cassville Yuck - 1 USA NT, 1 Macau NT