Absolutely this. You're talking about clubs who struggled to make three figures of home support at times, were often in peril both on and off the park and who play in utter crumbling dumps, whose own home towns don't give two fucks about them. Some of them a bawhair above amateurs, basically separated from Saturday league by having stands and maybe a social club. If the pyramid hadn't been introduced they'd likely have gone bust at some point. Don't get me wrong, they all had purple patches in League One, even the Championship in Cowden's case, but those were unusual spells in the history of those clubs. It's absolutely no surprise that as soon as the trap door came into existence they all started finding their natural level.
A Fife based friend of mine and former member of this parish (mon' the honey badgers) has always insisted that the Kelty Hearts money men "sell conservatories by the gram..."
Queens Park has entered the chat.