Most of your successful "tank strategies" aren't tank strategies by design. Chicago? That was terrible management that led to an awful team, awful management being ousted and replaced by competent leadership who took the fruits of the high draft picks from bad management and build a roster. Pittsburgh? Bad management that led to good management taking hold and gripping and ripping. Edmonton didn't get the message and replaced terrible leadership with more terrible leadership and just now has replaced it with what could be good leadership.
Toronto? They were a complete afterthought and by the time it was Shanaplan-city, the team had literally no choice but to dig out the cancer of the Brian Burke era and rebuild. People are taking the wrong message if they want their team to follow Pittsburgh and Chicago. The tanking efforts that have succeeded in professional sports that were actual tanks... Houston Astros. If you want to extend a bit to a team that hasn't had the big success yet but looks primed to do so, the Philadelphia 76ers.
That's it. Two successful tank jobs in professional sports that led to a championship caliber roster. But sure, let's hitch our wagon to that and not countenance any other method. By and large teams that try to be awful never get better. They only improve once the brain trust that drove them to the bottom of the league is gone.
Tigers - 1990-2003, incompetent leadership leads to ever worsening results. Around 2004, competent management shows up and they start adding pieces (albeit at inflated prices) and by 2006, they're playing for a title. Then, the team runs its course and by 2014, they're looking to rebuild again. Now, we're 2-3 years deep into a rebuild and we have NOTHING worth a damn in town. Our best pieces are a 30 year old "ace", a guy in his mid 20s who can't escape the injury bug, and the anchoriest anchor of a contract that ever anchored. Along with a group of about 3 minor league pitchers that look incredibly re-assuring, but that also haven't thrown a pitch above AA yet.
Tanking, by and large, is bad management, not good.