The discussion is which competition is stronger not how many imports they have. The Phoenix start 7 imports if you count non New Zealand eligible players as imports..
If you wanted to look at the standard of the ASBP as a relative guide, you would look at contests involving Waitakere vs TW or Canty or TW vs Canty because those 3 teams are likely to be the other 3 sides in the top 4 with perhaps WaiBOP providing a potentially competitive outfit this year.
Those games provide more of a true measure of the competition as a whole and relative to that, if ACFC are starting 7/8 imports, there are not many Kiwis going to come from that side and step up (as a quantitive argument)