Play-offs might not be the fairest way of deciding promotion but they are absolutely vital to English football.
The pressure, drama and unpredictability of the end-of-season showdowns are now sewn into the fabric of the game - so much so that the lower leagues would struggle to survive without them.
Sheffield Wednesday finished sixth in the Championship to earn today's unexpected shot at the Premier League big-time.
Now, having shocked third-place Brighton over two legs, a win against Hull at Wembley would end the Hillsborough club’s 16-year top-flight absence.
But Chris Hughton's Seagulls will no doubt feel short-changed that, despite finishing one place outside the automatic spots, they have to sit and watch as teams who finished below them battle it out at Wembley.
In fact, none of this season's best-placed play-off sides have made their respective finals.
League One Walsall crashed out 6-1 to Barnsley across two legs - having finished 10 points in front of them.
Accrington were the same number of points ahead of Wimbledon in League Two but still got turned over by them.
The football purists will tell you it undermines the league system and that since they arrived in 1987, teams have not got the deserved reward for their work over a gruelling nine-month campaign.
So what's the solution, scrap the play-offs and just provide an extra automatic promotion slot?
That would certainly be fair but it would also kill the game as we know it.
Gone would be the spectacle of the Wembley finals.
Gone would be the pre-season feeling that literally any one of 24 teams might just sneak into a crack at the big time.
Gone would be a post-season extravaganza that allows the lower leagues all the limelight without the distraction of the Premier League.
And gone would be the massive global audiences to whom the knockout climax is the perfect tonic for their end-of-term football withdrawal.
The Championship final is now billed as the richest game in football - currently worth up to about £170m and broadcast to 131 countries worldwide.
The drama of the play-offs gives the Football league an edge that even the Premier League cannot rival.
It always goes down the the last game and it is usually a matter of make or break for both teams - or at least their bosses and current squads.
Without the play-offs, global interest in the lower leagues would fall and smaller clubs would slip entirely off the overseas radar.
That would lead to a lack of interest from the big broadcasters and a crushing decrease in TV revenue which, for some clubs, is the only thing keeping them afloat.
It would also affect the back end of the season - as mid-table teams that are off the promotion pace would have nothing to fight for.
That would mean no more last-ditch play-off charges for teams who manage to get it together after Christmas - and would leave weeks and weeks of dead rubbers for many clubs come March and April.
Some fans never get to see their club at Wembley, that number would rise painfully without the play-offs.
But most the important thing to remember is that this is sport. And its chief role is entertainment.
English football’s play-offs are thankfully not as all-encompassing as in rugby union or Super League, where the fourth-placed side can literally be crowned champion.
But the shocks, the big stories, the unexpected winners and the devastatingly fine margins between glory and failure are still the game's beating heart.
Every winner can be knocked off their pedestal, every loser can bounce back.
The play-offs allow every player, manager, owner and fan - no matter how small the club - the ability to dream of bigger and better.
That can only be a good thing.
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