Panthers and Heat send their regards.
I think it's easy to lose sight of how little difference there is between an 80 and a 95 win team. It's less than one win every ten games, and a playoff series is only 7 at the most. You can get a long way before such a small difference in odds catches up to you.
To me, letting lower performing teams into the playoffs is less an issue because they can't win, than because they can.