I think what it shows is that it was basically a necessity for the storm to institutionalise this rort. How else were they going to beat all the obstacles of their organisation: being a club in an almost totally league-uninterested town, in melbourne where the 'lifestyle' attractiveness for players is not what it is in many of the other clubs in sydney or up the coast further; at an (up until recently) sh**box ground), etc.
I agree with the idea of tweaking the cap to allow something for long-serving players, and maybe also your 'juniors' (defining this is however getting trickier). But I think the cap in general has to stay for the collective good.
Someone said if we scrap the cap we may go the way of soccer in the uk, with a top echelon of clubs more or less unassailable. But that model is sustained by promotion-relegation and the pan-european (and national) competitions which give the premier league clubs other 'competitions' to compensate for not ever being really in the premier league race.
The nrl simply doesn't have those levels of depth to support it and needs to be very careful about sustaining itself on the money available, which should be enough if properly managed. The storm to me has always been effectively an unrealistic proposition and this rort bears that out. Better off developing franchises where the basics are there: ie. RUGBY LEAGUE PLAYING AND SUPPORTING COMMUNITIES.