I don't think that other countries don't give importance to this tournament. While in the history of Jones Cup, we've got some championships too but look at Iran. I guess Haddadi's retirement really hit them.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jones_Cup)
I think Iran has not participated in this tournament as I don't see their team in the rankings. Currently, only the Philippines are still undefeated, so it's safe to say that the Philippines will likely win. For Japan, I think they send their best players as are very much fulfilled already since they will be participating in the Olympics, while our team failed after a good start in the Olympics qualifier. So maybe this is the tournament that will make the fans happy when SGA wins the trophy.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jones_Cup)
Maybe yes, Japan already good with their journey after being qualified to the upcoming olympics it might be good for the team to focus with their journey and maybe they just sending players but not those from the national squad, while SGA is really doing good having that winning streaks, like what you said the chance of winning the title is possible and that's a good relief after being short from the last OQT.
Honestly, I think the current lineup is better than the players who played during the Olympic qualifier. You can see a lot of imports in the SGA team now, unlike the Olympic qualifier where we only had one, Justin Brownlee, our naturalized player. Maybe that's the reason why we are dominating the tournament and are very close to winning again after the 2019 success.
