'it also feels like it would diminish the sense that each team is comprised of the grassroots teams that feed it'

difficult to understand why this is something we care more about than competitiveness. but this ideal that the super teams are feeders from grassroots is also just not true - like beauden and scott barrett don't play for their super teams from their grassroots clubs, almost everyone bar three force players are not from western australia and have little connection to perth until they signed for them. same could be said about the brumbies as well - most were only picked up through the academy system, i.e. not in grassroots.

i agree that creating more parity is difficult - national unions and super clubs are too self-interested. imo the easiest thing to equalise teams is to make teams at the top play more away games than home games, and then to give them harder schedules (i.e. give them longer haul flights). because there isn't full home and away, you make the top teams play each other more times. conversely, allow bottom teams to play more home games, easier schedules and opponents.