The appeal with regular top 4 finishes is that it gives you the means to compete for trophies and take the club forward. With Arsenal that hasn't really happened so if you're asking would I rather one trophy over none but with slightly higher league finishes, I'd rather the trophy.
Exactly. If constant top 4 finishes means more money and means to win trophies down the line then great but in issolation winning say the FA cup is better than finishing 4th ahead of 5th. Nobody will remember who came 4th 10 years on but they'll probably remember Wigan's cup win last year.
What doesn't make much sense as well is the teams in the E.L (but with little chance of getting top 4) fielding weak teams in the E.L to give them a better chance of a higher finish in the league; in order to qualify again for a competition they clearly don't care about trying to win!!

.