Good, point - lets kick out Magnitogorsk already! They already have Traktor from the same region and from a much bigger city - all signs show they can be contracted.
I hope you're kidding. Vityaz hail from the biggest and most well-developed region of the country with a handful of historical teams with nothing to show for - those guys couldn't even find a home for themselves for like 10 years, becoming "Podolsk" or "Chekhov" as they please. They're by no means important or classical. Founded recently, serves no purpose. I mean, if a town known for its hockey love had a hockey team with loyal and crazy fans, I'm sure everyone would love and support it. Vityaz have none of that. I'm not a big fan of Cherepovets either but Vityaz look much more useless and tasteless in comparison with them.
Magnitogorsk and Chelyabinsk are decently populated, important cities of a big region. One doesn't hinder the other. The distance between two cities is big enough to justify having them both. Seriously, we're talking about almost 400 kilometers. Do you compare those two with Moscow and Podolsk, not even 50km between them?
I think KHL's biggest problem for now is Minsk and Bratislava. Those two teams are very important to keep KHL as a Eurasian league but they have been consistently bad. Well, Dynamo Minsk could be salvaged - I mean, nowadays the prospect of Belarus and Russia forming a single country is being discussed, so Dynamo Minsk, a historical side with a decent KHL record can be definitely saved but what to do with Slovan? They are just not on par with the others and this has not been a one-season fluke, unfortunately.
I always say this: I don't want to see this happen but I feel KHL will soon turn into a Russian league with one or two teams from abroad. I hope I'll be wrong and we'll see Berlin, Wien etc. but with international isolation of Russia by sanctions makes it really difficult to cooperate with other leagues and teams.
At this very moment, KHL have no reason to kick any teams out if Minsk and Bratislava are staying. I'd say, get rid of this Kunlun of an abomination but nah, it's not gonna happen.