I think one thing that would go a long way to reducing the negative impact this may have on the leagues is to have better players available in the yearly drafts.
It would help a lot if you had an opportunity to get a "potential" stud player with your 1st round pick without having to be picking in the top 5.
As it stands now, you have 2 options of getting a stud player. (1) Tank your season in hopes of getting a top 5 pick, or (2) offer a max contract
IF one of these players becomes available and then hope he accepts your offer over others.
Otherwise, you're never going to be able to get one.
I feel strongly that making the drafts something owners will actually look forward to would go a long way to enticing them to stick around.
I can't tell you how many times I have been tempted to just pack it in and not renew when the next season's draft class is revealed.
I can see how owners who weren't part of the allocation draft (and therefore got stuck with one of those awful AI drafted teams) would get very discouraged and feel they have no chance of competing with the other teams in the league. When they can't even realistically expect to get one impact player in the draft, I don't blame them for leaving.
That's pretty much the reason I left the leagues I was in where I didn't draft my team. Year after year of crappy draft pools.