Again, why are we punishing good teams? If they have the cap space (Sydney excluded), why shouldn't they be allowed to go get whoever they want?
IMO Its not about punishing the good teams.
There are two rungs to the equalisation process, the cap and the draft.
While the cap acts to control spending, the draft controls the number and quality of the players that you can add to your list in any given year.
Draft picks are the currency by which players move between clubs.
I agree that players should be able to go where they want, and the good clubs should be able to attract the best players. However they should NOT be able to add them to their list without both fitting them within the cap or paying for them with draft picks.
Otherwise the equalisation process will not work.