yeah they suck, but since all that is left for players nowadays is money, they go where the money is. In those serie A days, it was not only money like you said, but also top performances from the teams in the league.
Lets say, when serie A was at its prime.. it was a good combination of economic power and sporting excellency.
Apart from quality teams like ManU, which performed consistently in europe even with the league being third tier or 4th tier, this current manifestation of the premier league is being purely economical and not sportwise. It was made with money alone, unlike the serie A of old which was money and sporting excellency.
But well, they did their homework and apart from oil and sheik money, they improved a lot of aspects of their system and it is giving dividends now,