The travel report came out and Orlando is the only eastern team to make the top 10 with all the rest being the western teams. This does give an advantage to the eastern teams so why does MLS not change the rule from economy to business class for trips over 4 hours? The teams could choose to pick up the extra cost of the upgrades or it could be split between the league and team. What do you think?
The only times Western Conference clubs compete with Eastern Conferences in the standings are for the Supporters' Shield and the most points of the clubs in MLS Cup to host it. In general you should compare the travel within each conference.
Home field advantage in the MLS cup is a huge advantage. That means you have to account for travel in the league as a whole, not just by conference. If they ever do split into 2 leagues with the MLS cup being the only east/west game then your idea would work.
I'm not saying it's not a huge advantage. I'm saying that most clubs would not be good enough to reach MLS Cup and get home field advantage even if you reduced their travel by a lot. Leagues are going to have unequal travel in general. Is unequal travel and its impact on playoff hosting worse in MLS than in MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL (with the better team getting more home games if a series went the maximum amount or the only home game except for the Super Bowl)? Teams in the corners like Seattle and Florida sometimes aren't anywhere near the nearest team in their division, and that's also true for the Dallas Cowboys. Because the Conference Semifinals and Final don't give the better club an advantage other than hosting the second leg, wouldn't unequal travel matter less in MLS because it hardly matters other than MLS Cup. At least MLS has relatively balanced schedules within each conference. With MLB teams playing 76 division games and about 33 games against each of the other two divisions in their league, division strength can determine home field advantage in the playoffs. Cleveland (102-60) didn't reach the American League Champions Series, but if they did they would have had home field advantage over Houston (101-61), with Cleveland's division being easier going by the out of division winning percentage for the five teams in each division combined.
It might matter less in MLS for the reasons you mention but the travel still wears on the players over a 34 game season compared to NFL's 16. Plus the MLS Cup is not played at a neutral location like NFL. A few years back the Steelers (12-4) were on the road to Denver (8-8) because Denver had won their division with that crappy record so the NFL's way isn't always fair either. I think once they expand a bit more we will see 2 leagues (east & west) with playoffs being the only east games and then your idea would work. I have no idea what MLS will do for the Cup final at that point. Home & home?