You're right, it has to be the long-term aspiration. The lack of teams is definitely a weakness.
Even before Covid, although the quality was improving the structure of the league itself was still quite insecure. The last two years will have put the league back several years in it's long-term planning which is completely understandable given the circumstances, and the next year or so is going to be a testing period for many teams. You can easily envisage a situation next season where teams are postponing games are short notice or facing a fixture backlog. It's all about sustainability now, more than ever!