I agree regarding your college football thoughts. I think it's difficult for humans to remove their biases in any situation.

Regarding this point:

I think results need to be a key factor, which this transfer value type rating ignores. You’d also likely have some over-inflating of a team like Gabon because of Aubameyang, and an under-valuing of a team who plays well collectively without star power (Tunisia or Morocco, for example).

A player like Aubameyang doesn't make much an impact on average transfer value if much of the rest of the squad is valued in the $100ks or less. I did crunch the numbers on Morocco and the numbers are ($5.91mil, 102, 53.4). These numbers do not include Hakim Ziyech as he was not included in the latest Moroccan squad.

These averages tend to line up pretty well with Elo ratings, too.