I think people are somewhat acknowledging two basic strands in the responses. First, that MLS has been built on unsustainable ground, inherent in the league structure itself. Big investors bid MLS because it's guaranteed revenue with no risk and a shiny toy. You join the cartel and reap the profits together with your owner buddies. Second, because of that MLS does not give a shit about growing the grassroots game in a sustainable way or even basic initiatives like properly identifying talent. If a club goes down it could potentially be liquidated of investment. There is actually a real concern that MLS wants to monopolize the entire pyramid. They've injected reserve teams into USL and the US Federation has been totally on board if not spineless.

I don't buy the points about the sport needing to be bigger and rival other sports. It really doesn't. US has a massive immigrant population who doesn't give a shit about other sports. Even a lot of millennials who follow soccer as their main interest. If we had a sustainable league structure there would be organically formed clubs like Detroit City FC across the entire country. They have no TV deal, no fancy stadium, no fancy players, no big league, and they are still average > 5000 attendance.