The cap punishes for building a good team through the draft. Fucking ridiculous that you can't pay someone you drafted and some piece of shit vulture team that can't hit on a draft pick to save its life signs him away.
Compensation is more picks, not more cap space because doling out bonus cap space to teams to sign their own FA's cuts into the owners profits, while compensatory picks cost the league nothing and "reward" the good drafting teams by giving them broader draft options.
If anything, compensatory picks penalize the union by effectively extending the draft by darned near another round and reducing UDFA options.
Teams who buy free agents are getting shafted unless they craft contracts smartly and with voidable years-- so you can't build that way, only address weaknesses here and there.
I will add that by trading for George Pickens, Dallas acquired a player better than any WR in this past draft and far better than any available 2025 NFL free agent.
The rub is they only got him for a year, but if he kills it, they at least have a shot at paying him big money with the worst case scenario getting a 3rd round pick in compensation.