I tend to think the rationale for change now is the same as 1992 - finance ?
As far as player payments go then scarce resource + more purchasers = inflation.
Not sure that any body here is aware of how dire Superclub was . Only interesting parts were the regional clashes between the top sides (North Shore , Waitak and to a lesser degree Waikato up north) and the national rounds when ex National League sides resumed rivalries.Other games were the proverbial two men and a dog.
And then the plate section !!!!
(I was born in 1991) I think a key difference between then and now is that the people (whatever their role) who found Superclub dire had grown up with the original national league and seen it in its good times, so yes, there was a big change and drop off. But are there really big numbers of people who would miss the national league as it stands today if it collapsed back into the regional leagues, with some sort of national component at the end? The winter leagues and winter clubs have tended to attract more passion and interest in recent years (outside of AC-TW and to a lesser extent AC-ES). The Hamilton derby between Wanderers and Melville this Saturday will be a bigger game than any Wanderers national league home game this year.