I share your opinion regarding the troubling financial situation and the stagnation due to the caused uncertainty.
However: HC Slovan Bratislava allowed a bunch of Slovak players to compete with players in the 2nd best league of the world (KHL). This enabled Slovak hockey players to play on a highly competitive hockey level on a regular basis. Now with Slovan gone, this benefit is gone. Being able to develop (especially young) players in a KHL organization is a big advantage, because players (even if not skilled enough in the beginning) will adapt to KHL hockey level over time.
The Slovak hockey league surely isn't "bad", but miles away from the leading European leagues. It really is a shame. Same story happened with HC Lev Praha, even if the Czech Extraliga is slightly better off than the Slovak Extraliga.
How many Slovak players have there been in Slovan who have found a job in a league better than the Czech league after leaving Slovan in all those years they played the KHL? These days a good younh player can get themselves a contract in Liiga even from Slovak league, look at Kristof and Bucek. And they can always go to the Czech league from Slovak league.
The argument why the then leadership of Slovak federation let Slovan leave was that they would be the core of the national team. And how many times since 2012 was this actually true? Once?
The overall benefit of having Slovan in the KHL over having them back in Slovak league is minimal.
Slovan's departure almost destroyed the league which would leave Slovakia without a professional hockey league. Instead it grew from the ashes a bit and even went as far as throwing out clubs that had debts in order to stabilize.
Slovan with a budget of 2-3 million Euro can bring good things for the Slo ak league and that in turn can bring good things to Slovak hockey. Look at the IHWC this year, all the teams that made it to the QF have stable good leagues at home.
The question is though what kind of justice can clubs in Skalica and Martin feel in case Slovan gets accepted back into the league with the huge amount of debt and is it worth it to destroy the somewhat good image that the league has struggled to build during Slovan's absence?
Also the Slovak federation announcing that they are taking back control over the league just a few days ahead of Slovan saying they want back in stinks.