I mean all things considered with population, football is still quite a big sport in China, they were serious about making the NT an Asian force again, but along with covid which effectively ended governement funding and companies which owned these Chinese clubs like Suning and Evergrande had to cut cost and first thing they did was effectively fold the club, and now these teams have been renamed completely the whole thing failed.
There are similarities but Saudis seem to have gone the extra mile. Remains to be seen if they collapse like the Chinese league.
For example:
Government funding with PIF taking ownership of top clubs, unlike CSL which was privatised and heavily reliant on the property market.
Broadcasting deals, Saudis 2030 vision they've paid up yours get lots of marketing in place as well as tv deals. Other sports, boxing, ufc , is creating an image of Saudi being a location to host. Then theres brand, Ronaldo fan boys along with benzema and others really attracting a high following of the rsl clubs, unlike anything seen with CSL clubs.
Infrastructure spending, crazy amounts spent on new stadiums prior world cup, they've similarly to csl spent a lot on grassroots football, internationally their NT tends to make the world cup regularly and clubs winning the Asian champions league as a foundation helped.
Real question is whether its sustainable. I don't think it is, the astronomical wages might be an attraction but i think it could be their downfall too. Also they are a corruption scandal away from collapsing, which is one of the demise of CSL, for now though the bigger powers FIFA and co are happy.