I would say that All-Pro Football 2K8's commercial failure was caused by it having no league license, no franchise mode, and an intentionally restrictive editor, not caused by the tier system that it was using to construct teams.
The tier system was actually the best idea in the game, since it solves two of online sports gaming's oldest, most significant issues:
1) How can you create a competitively balanced sports game when the default rosters are inherently imbalanced?
2) How do you keep online users from getting bored of facing the same elite teams (Heat/Thunder, Seahawks/49ers, etc.) over and over again?
The current Ultimate Team/My Team system merely replaces the Heat/Thunder teams that everyone picks in Quick Games with copycat 99-overall lineups consisting of Iverson/Jordan/Durant/LeBron/Wilt.
I've seen 200-plus different athletes being used throughout online games of All-Pro Football 2K8. Meanwhile, the same 10 to 12 superstars are being picked repeatedly in NBA 2K14's My Team.
A mode like NHL 14's EA Sports Hockey League already offers two separate ranking/matchmaking systems for "casual" teams and "hardcore" teams.
Ultimate Team could easily adopt the same model, and provide ranking/matchmaking for teams that are built without any restrictions, plus ranking/matchmaking for teams with tier-based restrictions ala All-Pro Football 2K8.