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No, no, the Busch Series was always the developmental series. But, it was sort of a running joke in the 90s that not many drivers were "developing" in that series because there were Busch lifetimers like Randy LaJoie, Johnny Benson, Kenny Wallace, David & Jeff Green etc who were highly successful in Busch but never amounted to much with their Cup opportunities.
However, I will cite guys like Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart, Dale Jr., Matt Kenseth, Martin Truex Jr. and many others who are living examples of how the Busch/Nationwide Series is a developmental series and a very good one at that. It is 100%? Of course not. Nothing is. But it's still a developmental series.
It's also development in more ways than just an education for younger drivers. Every Nationwide race for even the most hardened Cup Series veteran is an education. It benefits not just the driver, but the teams, the engineers, the pit crew guys, the revenue stream for the teams, Goodyear, and everybody else involved.
My final question is, what alternative are people looking for? You want to ban Cup Series drivers from racing in anything but the Sprint Cup Series? What are you going to tell the people at the tracks who have to sell the tickets? Have you not just made their job much much more difficult? Then, what are you going to tell the sponsors and the TV networks trying to sell commercial time?
Nascar banned Cup Series drivers from earning points in any series but the Cup Series, and did it in a fair way by making drivers choose one series, whichever it is. There was a need for that. I applauded that move. But I would never, ever be in favor of banning Cup Series drivers from racing outside that series. It would do way more harm than any perceived good.