there are a lot of things that are going wrong on toughs team from my perspective. However, he with his current team IS winning games to avoid relegation. He was looking at fewer teams tanking and a fight for a 7th-8th seed not too long ago.
I think tough needs to learn who is worth training and what attributes need to be trained before he continues to develop his own talent. Otherwise, it is as you said a waste.
Rather than do the 1k strat, i'd just go ahead and cut Carbo and save the 1.3k per week. You dont need the 12th player. Then cut down on players per game. there's no point with two prospects in development for you to have 11 guys dressed and get minutes.
Finally, stop buying 1 dimension players. The only dimensions your looking at on guys are OD/ID on the secondaries, and thats not good enough. A player wont help you that much with his 9 OD if his PA and HA are both 2's. And ID of 10 wont help on a guard if he has limited other skills.