The EU seems to be rather obsessed with achieving an end state where a huge proportion of people (like 50 per cent?) have a degree, but this necessary leads to dumbing down of the curriculum and emergence of mediocre colleges.
We already have people with bachelor degree who can barely write gramatically correct Czech, even though they are natives.
In Czechia is there not a difference between research and teaching institutions? In the US we have things like community colleges and other colleges/universities where you can get your associates or bachelors, but not Masters / PhD. They have a focus on teaching their students, rather than doing research.
Although maybe that's what you're considering "mediocre colleges"
Having one major one would be a good achievement for a country of 5 million.
In the US, Wisconsin, Colorado, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Alabama are the states with populations in the 5-million range. The University of Wisconsin, Colorado, and Minnesota are all AAU members, and each would comfortably be the finest university in every country on earth smaller than, say, Spain (40 million people). South Carolina and Alabama aren't as prestigious but both do quite credible jobs of serving as the flagship universities of their states.
You can't have 5 research universities in a country of 5 million people.