Hi Bigeasy,
I'll try to answer without revealing too much of the details, as I've checked your team in depth.
First of all, as you already mentioned, you need to adjust your ticket prices, as they prevent you from having optimal attendance revenue. Your league is at $500k average ticket revenue, so you should be closer to that, at about $450k, which would mean that you'd have $150k for staff and scouting. Usually, most D1 teams don't need to spend that much, even $100k should be enough (your league average is at $76k). I've noticed you're spending much more which is very inefficient.
Second, your bad season is not a result of being too "weak", but, without revealing too much, because your team is a bit unbalanced (which reflects badly on your total salary sum too) and you've been focusing your efforts on the wrong matches. I'm sure you'll be able to get some wins if your rectify this strategy.
So, I'm pretty sure your situation isn't that bad at all and with some changes and necessary "sacrifices", you can easily get back in the "green". It's hard to stay in D1 once you promote, it is like that in real life too, but most people would prefer to have that chance even if they did not win their league. The opportunity for profit is always greater in higher divisions.
In conclusion, I disagree that this route of promotion is broken, it may be harder, but not broken.
@Alonso: They do get a boost, and without revealing the exact numbers, it is a substantial one. They get a promotion bonus too, so they have some starting funds to adapt their teams.