I agree, but I think the ACO look at it the opposite way. They want a championship, so they use the prestige and positioning of Le Mans to force teams into the WEC - a championship they don't really want to run in (see Toyota trying to just do Le Mans, before being denied that).
I love WEC, but it's pretty clear that manufacturers don't. Maybe rather than pandering to manufacturers who never seem happy, they should be working on sustainable privateer regulations for LMP1. And then there's finally an excuse to drop Shanghai...