I think one of the problems is that the entire AFL industry has assumed that the broadcast rights would keep on expanding exponentially. This has lead to a massive blowout in costs to run clubs.
But even aside from COVID I think we are getting close to saturation in the Australian market. Ultimately all the money comes from the punters - in the form of tickets, memberships or advertising (companies only advertise if they can get people to buy their product).
i think they need to wind back costs but have to keep the old guard clubs. Melbourne has 50,000 odd members but about 250,000 supporters. If we fold, I would bet many of these would be lost to the game. At least I would. Same for the other clubs I reckon. Why dilute your loyal fan base and cut the ultimate source of revenue.
Even the rich clubs need someone to play against ( preferably a decent competitor to make it attractive).