This is from 2021, but Bora just barely sneaks into the top 10 - so yeah, we had a winner from a team that isn’t close to the highest salary Tour de France team budgets 2023 | Statista
We completely agree on this point - the GC action was very limited this year. We just disagree on how to address it.
Setting aside the current form of Quintana and Dumoulin - I fundamentally disagree with your assertion here. JV or Ineos would just put so much time into the smaller teams that their best climber in the race would have an insurmountable lead. You’d not be comparing a strong TT rider with a climber