you have salary cap so everybody is equal where richer clubs are forced to play at the same lever like poorer clubs not because of cost nobody is dumb enough to over pay out of their budget for players.
I feel MLS has the best of both worlds: there's a trophy for single-table winner and a playoff system. The "flaw" of single table is that a team can win the trophy without ever defeating a top team. MLS playoffs ensures the real powerhouses have to duke it out on the way to the final, which is very fun and dramatic, IMO.
While that's possible, I don't think many champions struggle against the other top clubs. Here are close title battles in top leagues: 2013-2014 La Liga: Atletico Madrid won with 90 points while Barcelona and Real Madrid had 87. Atletico and Barcelona played 2 draws, and if you go to away goals Atletico did better head-to-head. Atletico got a win and a draw against Real. 2011-2012 Premier League: Manchester City won the title on goal differential over Manchester United with 89 points each. Manchester City won both head-to-head games. Manchester City had a win and a loss against third place Arsenal, and Manchester City scored more head-to-head goals. Arsenal was 19 points behind. 2013-2014 Premier League: Manchester City won the title with 86 points followed by Liverpool with 84, Chelsea with 82, and Arsenal with 79. Manchester City and Liverpool won hosting the other one and scored 4 head-to-head goals each, with Manchester City scoring more head-to-head away goals. Chelsea won both games against Manchester City. Manchester City got a win and a draw against Arsenal. Today all four Champions League spots and all three relegated clubs in La Liga could be determined before the last 3 games.
It's not the point of whether or not they struggle; there's just a certain amount of drama in knowing that the best teams all have to duke it out at the end of the season in must-win games to get to the championship and win it.
OK. Atletico won the title with a draw in their last game at Barcelona, but there are also times where the title is clinched with an easy win on the last matchday. In 2009-2010, Chelsea led Manchester United by 1 point with 1 game left. Manchester United won 4-0. Chelsea won 8-0 over Wigan Athletic, who wasn't relegated, but who finished with the worst goal differential because of that game. The good thing is that domestic cups and the Champions League have top clubs finish tournaments late in the season.
Doing so favors the younger players. Older players need longer to recover. Established stars tend to be older so you won't get the best of them. Also, the more games they play, the longer the needed recovery. The organizers need to optimize tighter schedule (attention span), peak performance (attractive games) or fewer games (less revenue).
Since I was talking about a tournament and not the regular season the "recovery" problem is minimized. Also, in a tournament, depth is part of what determines the best team. The total number of games for each team are 3 in the group stage and 3 or 4 in the knockout rounds depending on exactly how the tournament is structured. Teams should be able to play every three or four days for the duration of the tournament which makes the tournament last less than a month which, I believe, is shorter than the current format.
Some teams are good in playoff style competition (Cups) some are build for long seasons. Liverpool may win the Champions League, but will finish 3rd or 4th in the EPL (Real Madrid can also be Champion and finish 3rd in La Liga). Chivas did not make the playoffs in LigaMX but they won the Concacaf Championship. Different teams can do well in different competitions. There are also different style of Cup playoffs. In some 1 bad game will kill you (FIFA WC club and NT, NFL, Most National club Cups, NCAA Basketball, ect.) In other American playoffs the better team can have 1 or 2 bad games and still come on top (NBA, NHL, MLB). In International club soccer it is usually a 180 minute game with both home and away games, some with an exception for the Final or a few quirks like MLS has (play in games and such). Most Latin America tournaments have the 180 minute game playoff system.
I personally don't find any excitement of a single table the one with the most points is champion. You can be crowned champion several weeks before the season even finishes and it has happened. Where is the thrill factor in that? The only thing that helps promote excitement in the Euro leagues is that the higher placed teams qualify for Champions league. We don't have that here. So a team in EPL, Bundesliga etc that is mathematically impossible to be champions can still go for a top spot to qualify for Champions league.