It was originally bought in to stop teams strengthening up. In the NL riders can be absent for no reason and it can lead to riders being 'rested' for important meetings
Leicester don't have many lower order assets to protect so maybe it was to help Leicester out and they were allowed to have Howarth in return. It will be interesting to see how they deal with injuries this season as last season Leicester had to take Payne to Poole and as he only rode the few measly meetings in the NL obviously was nowhere near ready to guest in the EL.
They should have gone for a kind of jobshare for the no. 7's !!!!!
In.my experience it's not the fact that they don't get enough meetings to earn a living it's enough meetings to race at a good level. When you go 2 and 3 weeks without a meeting you can't compete. Richie Worrall said the same about only riding in the PL and they have twice as many meetings. If you aren't riding it's not costing you. Practicing isn't the same as you don't push yourself.
Tbf to Len Silvet he has made no secret of the fact he got caught out with unusually low NL points limit dictating his 4, 2, 6, 7 But their 1, 3 & 5 have done their job.
Incedently that was bought on by scunthorpe who signed a hotshot Fin and pulled out of the NL