You are wrong. Go and look at how many teams in the Europa League group stage last season are in the Champions League Group stage this season which means they must have been Champions League quality last season to qualify for it this season. The Europa League is a major European trophy. There are no tiers. Only fans of the modern game refer to tiers. I will concede the Conference League is ridiculous but would you call Chelsea a 3rd rate club?
It is a level below the CL, that cannot be in question, surely?
Yes, there are teams that were in Europa last year, CL this year
But there are also the Barca, Madrid, Bayern... of this world which are in the CL year on year and levels above anything in the other competitions.
Yes, it is a major trophy, but also yes - there are tiers/levels/degrees to these things
