From a business perspective, I think it's fair to say that fielding a roster devoid of anybody exciting -- i.e. what the Sixers did for several years -- is a lot worse than publicly acknowledging that your old and injury-prone team will probably be best-served by packing it in for a good draft pick in June.
To put it another way, the Sixers said a lot more about their intentions to lose, in a much more blatant way, from the start of each season, than Marc Cuban has ever done, without ever putting it into an explicit statement.
In either case, though, I think you can also argue that tanking is actually a good plan from a fan-interest perspective, because selling your fanbase on exciting draft prospects is a lot easier than getting them jazzed up about watching a bunch of journeymen and past-their-prime stars try to win enough games to earn the privilege of being swept in the 1st round.