Not all champions are determined via a playoff of course. The vast majority today are. And the regular season result usually is used to seeding amd byes.
I'm fine with smaller playoffs, how baseball does it is fine with me. I thought the Braves would beat Philly and lose to LA, so it's hardly a big deal with my expectations (I do troll a bit at times).
I recall many years back the Dawgs in basketball were their usual woeful selves and somehow won the SEC Championship series, they won more conference games in the playoff than in the regular season. (That was the tornado year also.) It was exciting for the fans, the top SEC teams still made the NCAA Tournament, as did the Dawgs (quickly eliminated). Playoffs are very popular and generate a lot of money, so they are simply the way things are done, it's not going to change, whining about such things is pointless.