I think the idea of having SPS staking requirements to earn SPS makes total sense. I don't like the idea that it should be separate from the Splinterlands stake of SPS. If it was, though, I'd personally take whatever I needed from my Splinterlands stake and put it toward Soulkeep. I'm not buying an additional 100k SPS for Soulkeep when I already need like 400k SPS for Splinterlands.
It's clear that something more needs to be done to prevent people from getting so much SPS out of the game, though. I think they should make the second attempt free or something, too. Part of the incentive to run alts in the same league is to do more attempts without buying tickets. But it usually does take 2 attempts to get it right if you only have one account, so maybe just make the second one free by making the first ticket purchase be good for 2 attempts.
Not sure what the best play is here, but I totally would agree that more "free" play is needed. It's somewhat crazy to have a game that you can only play like 10 minutes a day without spending any money.