The AFC Champions League is a total mess

Struggling in a league that's basically a big pond for small fish...
Since the ACL restructuring, K League teams have been performing poorly. Our foreign players are inferior to those in China and Southeast Asia, while our domestic players lag behind Japan. We're getting crushed from both sides. On top of that, even if we qualify for the ACL best stages, we can barely win, yet teams are still rotating their squads.
I've been watching this same mess for years.
Except for Lee Jung-hyo's Gwangju two years ago, every team becomes a punching bag as soon as they enter the ACL... Just watching it is stressful.