i think i misunderstood your point, or i read too quickly and made an assumption.
if the issue is that there are too many (7 to 8) in region X and too few (5 or less) in region Y, then yes i agree with you. the 5th and 6th place in theoretical region X could be better than all of region Y and never make it to playoffs. which goes along with my point...too many teams are making it that don't belong in it.
i think the fix is to split the regions more evenly, but then you run into longer travel times. what would your solution be?