They are probably satisfied with it... personally, I'm not. I won't ever spend any more money in scouting until something is changed in the current draft system.
If the others in your league are scouting, it's probably a mistake to invest heavily in the draft if you expect a 17-5 record like you had last season. Most late first-round NBA picks aren't superstars either, although occasionally somebody does slip.
On the other hand, if you expect to have a lousy season, then a heavy investment in scouting is more likely to pay off.
I'm curious how many people with bad records are still unhappy with what they got; I suspect it's a lot fewer. Then again, teams with bad records seem to be less likely to post in the forums here...
Excuse me, and I mean no offense whatsoever, but this is just nonsense (made worse by the comparison to a real-life NBA scenario which is totally useless since a)in every country in the world except for the US there is no draft at all, b)in real like players aren't a collection of numbers who improve in a predetermined way according to a mathematical formula, and c)you'll be the first to agree that there is quite a difference in the scouting process that takes place in real life compared to the one that we have here).
I don't know how many posts in this thread you've read, but (at least in my case) I made it perfectly clear that I had no problems with the results of the draft, nor did I expect an improvement in the level of the draftees.
My issue is with how the draft is implemented. It, along with the "scouting" system, has one major problem: it's boring as hell. You don't actually DO ANYTHING. That may be why lots of people just ignore it completely and invest the money saved on a new trainee.
Lastly, you make it sound like it's easy to predict whether a team will have a good season or a terrible one. Well, in most competitive leagues, that is usually not the case, since the difference from being 3rd or 4th out of 16 and being 10th or 11th is just a couple of games. So that "strategic" part of the scouting system really doesn't work at all.