The startlist of the previous edition four years ago in Baku was pretty good, i think other than the calendar spot (that is forced by the fact that being a multi sport event, in case is up to the single sports to adapt their calendars) what has killed that is the creation of the European Championship in 2016 that has overshadowed that pretty fast.
Anyway also Asian Games or Panamerican Games are in the same situation or even worse if we look at the startlists, not the mention minor games like Mediterranean ones where almost all important nations literally send kids.