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I don't think that how much Howard Lincoln wants or doesn't want to win is the most relevant issue. It seems very clear that he is under strict orders to maintain a positive or neutral annual cash flow, to ensure that no further capital investment is needed by ownership. That is the first principle of the Mariners, from which all others flow. It's really as simple as that, Nintendo is not willing to invest into the team. Not their business, and they are really just serving as a tax shelter for Mr. Yamauchi's family asset anyway.
If you look at this as the one ironclad rule of Marinerdom...and realize they are effectively a ship without a captain...everything else makes a lot more sense. If we had a great front office to spend our limited payroll wisely we could compete, but it seems we don't have that. So as is we are left hoping, as Gordon noted, that our GM is able to assemble enough free talent from our past failures, that we luck into some success.
Until the team is sold to a real baseball ownership group, there is no chance that this financial dynamic will change. To me, I may as well accept it and get on with being a Mariner fan and hoping for some good bounces of the ball our way for a change. Maybe Elias and James Jones are going to be two of them...