This is the primary advantage and it is powerful. of course, rivalries are very important too.
Other thoughts:
Controversy is not necessarily bad. Also, it would not be removed with automatic qualifiers which are contemptible given the great disparity in conference strength. There will always be real flaws combined with general discontentment in any system. The current one is preferable to any other that I've heard proposed.
I've already lost much interest in regular season MLB, college basketball, NBA and NHL because of the how meaningless it is. I've also lost a good bit of interest in MLB's post season because the best team rarely wins, this season and last being refreshing exceptions. Even the NFL's reg season has lost value. The 4 team CFP has caused a little bit of diminished interest in the reg season because it is the only thing that now matters. The bowl season has been crushed. College football has it as close to perfect as it is likely to get. IMO, the SEC should not add a conf game but add one more P5 game. Thus they would have 10 and with 1 G5 and 1 FCS. But this would be a minor, though welcome, tweak.