You make some good points. We like winning in America , bottom line , not second place or top american . Marketing of running athletes and their net to the bottom line is always in debate.
We as runners may like it and romance it , but does it sell more of anything to the general population ?
A comment to JH building the field for this years Boston. By all accounts it looks like they there were set with the elites ( most of the spring races tie things up in the fall prior ) and Mebs run or not run deal had other issues. It could be that Meb was playing one spring marathon off the other , waiting for his "reasonable offer". Athlete deal makers for the different events do talk amongst themselves as do the agents.
Nothing wrong with what Meb was doing but you play to long , money dries up , elite field becomes ideal for the race director formula , time runs out.