RSSI teach MBA students. Once upon a time a major college women’s basketball grad (who played with WNBA players in college) passed through my class and did a project on the WNBA. Her diagnosis was that the WNBA, being short season and not enough money to live on for most players, is basically something the players just play for fun. They make their livings in the winter, in Russia or Turkey. Given that, the quality of play is less than it should be and older elite players are increasingly skipping it.
Her suggestion was that the WNBA play full seasons in non-NBA markets so they could pay the players enough to live on. Don’t know how feasible that is (didn’t work for the ABL in the 90s), but the numbers she presented didn’t seem crazy.