I play another online manager game (soccer), where in japanese league non-bot teams fill like to DIV.4. I play this since quit a while but I'm still stucked down there since ever. I played another game before starting in DIV.1, where due to lack of users the japanese league was fusioned with the chinese and in the end fusioned with all the rest of the *small* countries (it became the international league).
It is clear that all of the BB users who start this thing much earlier wear the crown mostly until the end (well, somewhen this game will disapear for sure anyway). As a beginner it's at least interesting trying to get to that level once, but it can be also annoying to stuck between beaters and bots for a couple of season. Anyway, this game has so much more to offer than only become nr.1. For me, (although I'm not japanese) I like the idea only playing with japanese players (and probably some of my home country), which will almost never lead me to the top 5 of BB-Japan. Trading is not an option, I have hardly time to do so.
Like you I prefer larger nations, but not too large ;). Or at least a little bit more balanced competition, without knowing already at the beginning of the match, that you will lose because the other team has players with triple or even much higher rates. That would never happen in a real life league, even there weaker teams can beat the tops sometimes (ok, i know, it's not real life here
. To get a more realistic competition I would see that the DIV is cut down to one each level with the posibility (in this case) even drop to DIV.3 and fight the way back to JBBL. It's obviously that some user stop this game just shortly after the subscribe. I guess it's because they can not see any progress within some season from the start. I would like to let even the non-supporter have the possibility to number their player and chasing flags to make it more interesting for them. A pro for supporter could be then like the ability to create own dresses or changing the appearance or name of the player, like it's possible in other manager games which charge around the same membership fee yearly like BB. A junior league would be fine, too.
Or, if everybody feel annoyed about the current situation, what about everybody of us go bot and start with a completely new team, hehehe...?
Anyway, I like this game and I will play it 'til the end ;).
The method of learning Japanese recommended by experts is to be born as a Japanese baby and raised by a Japanese family, in Japan. And even then it is not easy...