beating LSU makes me much more interested in watching a game than playing UNLV and knowing we'll likely win. Maybe that's just me. And winning a meaningless conference championship does nothing for me.
If you think that winning alone gets us better recruiting, etc. then I think you'll be disappointed. There's a divide happening in college football and those who aren't in the P5 (or at least playing P5 schools) are going to be on the wrong side of it. We shouldn't give up on at least trying to be there.
Beating UCLA, Oklahoma, etc, however infrequently, will do more for our brand than repeatedly beating Fresno State.