I agree with all of the points being made.
One tangent on meaningless games. Maybe football purists can tell football isn't meaningful and quality. But even within this board, there is a tendency to see possibilities and have hopes well into a season. Last year it was pretty obvious the Packers weren't really any good. But even well into the season and right up to MM's getting fired, there were still hopes that *if* we get hot and win a bunch, that we might still pull it out and get into the playoffs, like the "RELAX" year. And *IF* you get into the playoffs, anything can happen, etc..
My point, here, is that the longer the season the more games it takes to get mathematically eliminated! And so long as a team isn't eliminated, a lot of fans believe in the "get hot late" hypothesis. So in some deformed way, it may almost be a deal where a longer season might reduce the percentage of "mathematically-eliminated-already" games, and almost make a higher percentage "meaningful", even if only in a somewhat shallow sort of way?
But yeah, a lot of teams that are .500 or a game under, still very much feel like their November and early December games are fully meaningful, given that 10 wins can usually get you in, and sometimes only 9.