I think gE has said for years that bowl games are meaningless.
Always ahead of the curve. I think what's interesting with the current situation is that the players are increasingly feeling this way too.
I've wondered this myself, especially since the playoff became a thing. Mid- and lower-tier bowl games don't seem like much more than a money grab for sponsors these days, kinda like all these one-off postseason basketball tournaments (CBI, Vegas 16, etc.). We've already run into the problem of having more bowl games than teams with 6+ wins, so they have to let in teams with losing records. I can only imagine that will just get worse.
There will always be at least a couple "benefits" to playing in lesser bowl games - extra practices for underclassmen, one more chance for non pro-bound seniors to put on their pads, an occasional intriguing matchup (still hoping for the chance to crush Nebraska's dreams on a neutral field) - but with terrible (if any) payouts and little more than bragging rights on the line, they've definitely lost their luster.
