I'm against dividing teams like this in Leagues to be honest. It kind of feels like you've separated out 4 teams that no one expects to win for the Tier 2 label, and I feel like it will pretty much always be the case with these kind of systems. It's self-fulfilling really, the second tier has lower requirements on the teams with the unspoken justification that they aren't going to win it anyway so whatever. I can't shake the feeling that if there was a serious title favourite in this situation then a different approach would be taken.
I think, hopefully uncontroversially, that leagues like this should have one set of rules that apply to every team. In the case that the rules make it very difficult for 4/10 of the teams to actually play, then either the base rules should be reconsidered or the team applications should be more selective. I'm not sure about this compromise where rules standards are lowered in order to pad out the number of competitors.
The final angle on this is that can't the latest rulechange be seen as a bit patronising? To join a tournament, keen to show the worth of your players, and then the organiser tells you that you are only tier 2 anyways so just bring whatever you can (again, I think the implication is inescapable that these teams will not win the league). Either way, I'll still be rooting for Ironfist and the 33rd this League, I'm just not sure I agree with this latest change.