100% this and wogitalias's posts above. Its not just the total average thats important - it's the average that on field spot has over the entire year.
Yes - we have extra trades this year. However there is a reason (and its not because the HS wants to make it easier).
Covid will be extremely prevalent this year and cause a lot of forced outages (1 week at best, who knows at worst). Thats why we have these extra trades. It's not to be making the 'perfect team' - I expect we will be struggling most weeks to put 18/22 scoring players on the park. All these extra trades and trade boosts will be used to maximise our playing players - not forming a superteam!
This is also where cheaper players can add to their value throughout the season.
Let's same team A has Hewett, Sicily, Lipinski and Rowell at a total cost of $1,548K.
Team B has Macrae, Lloyd and 2 rookies (@$270K) for the same total cost, in the equivalent positions.
If a team (or multiple teams) are hit by covid outs, then the overall depth of your list becomes more relevant. My understanding is games won't be postponed, so we won't be going to a best 18 scenario. There is always going to be a degree of random luck as to who is missing, but the more often it happens, the more likely you are to need the depth.
Team A is less reliant on rookies to fill in for the missing players. The extra trades are there for this situation, but Team B might be forced to use them more often, thus putting them at a disadvantage.
