That was a winning model at the time but definitely not sustainable. This was not a system were Juve, Inter, Milan and Roma were self-sufficient businesses. It was a corrupt system were 3-4 tycoon owners bank rolled the clubs out of pocket and leveraged their influence on referees and politics. The freaking prime minister bank rolled Milan.
Its this dinosaur and his ilk (Moratti/Fachetti, Berlusconi/Galliani) that never used their unique power and influence to reform Serie A, and no wonder even Milan and Inter collapsed once FFP came into effect and the corrupt bozos lost interest.
If Calciopoli never happened, odds are these old farts would still be sitting on broke ass clubs and trying to one up each other on who can bribe the refs the most.