Not so much - at least in earlier years. Partly because they started pre-season earlier because their league kicked off earlier - so they were ahead in prep. And partly because they often didn't have a squad of 22 or 24 first team players that all needed game time.
I'm not saying it's unfair on Premiership teams. I am saying that anyone who has watched the group games in the past few years hasn't exactly been exposed to fast-flowing, high tempo football from match sharp players. That is largely down to the timing of the games while teams are still half-way through preparing for the league.
That doesn't excuse Premiership teams not qualifying from their group. As a paying punter, though, I don't think the league group games deliver as much value for money as the prior formats did where we had one-leg, straight knock-out rounds every round.