QUOTE:
A few seasons ago Barcelona failed to win their first two opening group fixtures; where that would've seen their arses kicked out under the old knockout system, they were able to progress to the next stage because they had a chance to get their shit together in the remaining four games.

Well yes, but perhaps the reason they didn't get their shit together in those early games was because they knew in advance they had the comfort blanket of four more games to recover so were quite happy to pace themselves accordingly.

The group format may not be as instantly gratifying as the knockout stages used to be, it's still a meritocracy though.

QUOTE:
The UEFA Cup was an excellent competition, as was the Cup Winners' Cup, and why UEFA had to fuck around with one and bin the other I don't know.

The Cup Winners Cup was always a horribly compromised tournament, any format often having to make do with teams participating who nearly fulfilled the original qualification criteria rather than actually doing it would be.