I couldn't disagree more. (I've actually had this argument with wozz back in season 17: we were discussing whether or not SM should buy a C or a guard for the B3 elimination round (SM ended up buying a guard, I thought this was a mistake and wozz was on the fence: I think it clearly proved to be a mistake))
SM's strategy is to shut down your team with OD. This works with most NBBA teams, but the thing is: enough passing, and you can work around the monster OD: so you are left with soft interior defending. It hasn't worked all that well against top tier inside teams (though there is some room for debate here), and it doesn't work *at all* against national teams.
Outside of the brief period where I bought a guard for B3, only to waste his skills playing LI in the hopes I could draw VS into playing man to man, I've always maintained a salary under 700k, lately around 650k. Generally I've held an average to below average salary in the NBBA. I don't feel that most would consider that top tier. Yet, I've won two cups and managed to twice make it to the B3 elimination round (coming in 8-0 as the 5th seed in my B3 debut), without ever having owned a player that has more than prominent ID. There's no doubt that my team would improve if my bigs had more ID, but in my view it isn't an efficient use of resources.
As for the strategy, my long term plans for my team design (when I'll have a salary more on par with top teams) won't be complete until midway through season 21, so until that point I'm more concerned with saving money than competing with the elite LI teams of the world. Anything above that this season will be a bonus.
That said, there's no reason to minimize the collective salary of an NT, so my philosophy on ID is irrelevant. I will say that high ID/SB on our guards, what you might expect to see on a SF, would be extremely useful in stopping LI.