You can't just equate it to the same situation as "I work and get to choose where I work, if I don't like it I just go to another company" either. I doubt any of us work in an industry where there are only 32 companies and revenues depend upon paying customers that show up if they think their team has a chance to be competitive.
Imagine what it would be like if players just got to go play wherever they felt like going. Without a cap all the talent would go to places like New York, LA, Miami, Chicago or Toronto. Big cities with lots to offer as well as relative anonymity. How would small markets like Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg etc ever be competitive?
Support for the small market teams would tank if you knew you'd never ice a decent team or ever have a chance of winning. Sports leagues need some sort of mechanism to distribute talent and give every team hope of some sort. Otherwise us small market teams would all be in perpetual decades of darkness borne not of incompetence, like up north, but because all the best talent would never choose to play here.
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