Sure, but who's to say the team with Brees or Manning didn't have the best season? Those guys hardly played in 17. When you end in the last week, there can be a lot of problems -- the team that wins is often (not always) the team who was able to pick up a key scrub or two in the last couple of weeks in the season, not the best team. Hell, I had to start Kyle Orton for the championship game.
I finished in 2nd this way, and would've gotten knocked out of the playoffs in week 15 if we did 4 teams and ended in 16, but I still prefer not playing week 17. It's too random and unpredictable.