I think people are sort of missing Mike's point
not to speak for him, but I think his point isn't that, with TC PPs of even marginal quality, shortening the draft will make things "better," just that it would be something that *should* have no effect
he's saying that if you can get something much better than a 14th rounder from the TC pool, why bother with those rounds of the draft? ... obviously, having those extra rounds of the draft help the lazy and those that don't care about their minors ... Mike is just saying that he (and anybody who is paying attention) will quickly realize that the TC offers better talent than the late rounds of the draft and is also cheaper (no bonuses), and they won't bother to sign those guys drafted in the later rounds
I suppose the only "better" part about shortening the draft is that it will force the lazy and those that don't care about the minors to get the better quality TC players rather than draft 9 more LF/1B and have them play in the RL each season