I honestly think that they design the competition this way to weed out the financially weak Caribbean teams. Remember we in the CFU has 33 members. If they were to have an open competition like how they do in Europe, it may not worth it on the financial side. Imagine Pumas from Mex has to travel to the Caribbean to play a team from Dominica. The mex. side may win 21 zip on aggregate, but may lose financially.
But this will benefit the stronger(financially) Caribbean teams. Both Jab. and Connection went thru the baptism of fire and they survived. They should be ready for the group stage.