You took my first question too literal. There are many "mega-salary" players that aren't NT players for various reasons. PLUS when national teams are in periods in which their enthusiasm doesn't matter and resets soon, they could just put whoever they wanted on the team so they would go on sale for 1k. Most CURRENT NT players will not be on these teams because they won't be in good game shape...usually.
Also, before they changed the system, fired players were retired, not put up for sale. This rule has only changed fairly recently. That's why I said, "like it used to be", in my post.