Your conclusion makes sense, but nevertheless every team will try to do their best because there is a prize at stake every game they play. Lens also have good form as a competitor, but of course they don't look like the best contenders in the Champions League because other top teams tend to have strong chances and mentality.
In addition, Lens do not have much experience in the Champions League which means they will return home early after the group stage. But anything can happen, maybe next season will be different even though Lens' chances are very low.
Lens must try to bring in several new players next season and they must be consistent and more focused in Ligue 1 because conditions next season will be much different from this season, where there will be many challengers who will try to play better than before. So that Lens' opportunity to remain consistent and be able to finish in runner up position will be much more difficult, a big challenge for coaches in facing other competitors and an increasingly busy match schedule will also affect the fitness condition of the players.
Realistically Lens's chances are very small because they are not an experienced team and have a mentality in the Champions League. It will be quite difficult for Lens to get past the group stage, especially if you are in a group with a great team with experience in the Champions League. So speaking of quality and experience, it is certain that they will find it difficult to compete so their targets will definitely not be excessive.
The lens could have a closer race with PSG because this season PSG was not in a good mood at all and they had too much bad atmoshpire in this team I think if Lens wants to have better performance in the next season they mnusty invest much more for their team.
With Messi leaving, PSG will lose power, we can all guess. He hasn't had a bad performance this year. The fact that he will leave the team has undoubtedly made it necessary to reinforce the team. On the other hand, if Mbappe leaves the team, it will be a very weak PSG offensively. They may have to spend serious money to fill this gap. I'm very curious about next year's PSG offensive line.
What's the point of spending a lot of money when you get the same result every year. That simply mean they are doing it the wrong way.
PSG needs good talented players that are consistent in their performance, not too much injured like Neymar, not old as Messi, with all respect to what he did with the team this year.
PSG will spend for new players for sure this summer, hopefully they can add something to the team.
I agree with you, if they keep getting the same results for spending a lot of money, then I'd say they are better off not spending any money at all. Something is wrong with the way they run the club to make this happen. I really regret it when a team with very good financial conditions can't do much in a prestigious competition, I won't talk about them in Ligue 1, because obviously in my opinion this is not a place for them to compete on an equal footing. Maybe one or two seasons when they are like this, then it can be said to be a natural thing, but when every season they do the same thing, then there are questions to be asked.
But why do people think that when you run a project like PSG in an inferior domestic league that the club can then compete with clubs from the Premier League or even La Liga or the Bundesliga? PSG lacks competition throughout the year, which is a big issue for them because they have to switch gears in an unrealistic manner to beat Manchester City after they have played 10 games in a row against very weak Ligue 1 teams. They don't have enough exposure to opponents on a very high level and that can't be changed no matter what management has control over the club. It is a major disadvantage of building a club in an inferior league.
If they wanted to run projects like PSg in the premier league they had to spend much more money because in the premier league, there are many ort rich teams and there is a closer race between other teams while in the French League, they could have easier days, if they were spending this money in premier they could even lose the top of the table easily.