"It all boils down to the fear of losing money either from not being in the CL"

There may be a "critical mass" beyond which loss of CL has no detrimental effect on a club that has got fat on it. Look at the Poool. They have been out of the CL for 4 (probably 5) consecutive seasons. But their revenue streams have not been reduced to the levels of say Spurs and Everton.