that's kinda my point, if both leagues are gonna be the same, the what is the point of having promtion relegation?, you may as well have a 20 team league. If there is some financial drop in salary cap etc the promotion/relegation makes sense, but at that point splitting an existing league in half to create this scenario is hugely unfair on the teams relegated to create the second tier.
Because without pro/rel, by halfway through the season teams in the bottom half of a 20 team comp, will have squat to play for as the playoffs become quickly out of reach.
Pro/rel would add a whole different element, and no doubt produce some late season drama as with many leagues around the world. If there are no big financial penalties from dropping down to the A2 tier, then don't see any undue unfairness from being in the 2nd tier. Especially if A2 teams still get some opportunities to play A1 teams, keep traditional derby fixtures alive etc.
As before that might as part of some preseason or even mid season Cup comp, where you group A1 & A2 teams in different pools (NSW pool, VIC pool etc) so derby rivals get to play each other. The MLS & Liga MX had their own mid season combined Cup comp this year
I agree with you on the dead rubber games. But from a league/club perspective when you have 20 teams in a league and you decide at some point to split the league into two 10 team leagues, you are literally creating two versions of what we had a few years back. ie a ten team league where you play each other 3 times instead of the normal home/away. Effectively your duplicating the problem you just solved by growing the league to 20 teams.
Besides that, the bottom half of the league are not gonna be happy being used to create a second tier league if it is financially worse for them. And if it is just the same then you're running two identical leagues with some silly movement between them at the end of the season - it's ridiculous.
do you see what I mean? there has to be some reason to not want to be relogated, and it's usually the finacial hit you take from loss of tv/sponsor revenue. There also has to be some reward to being promoted, usually tv funding etc. If that doesnt exist ie the leaguea reb the same then there is just no point and you end up with the same meaningless games.