I think there was a video from a couple years ago of the NFL "process" for creating the schedule? I think the premise was there was more human decision (literally a bunch of NFL staffers in a room) than anything else. Seemed a bit subjective then and that was before the NFL money grab went full on.
Great find - yes, it seems so archaic and not surprising at all that there's all sorts of goofiness in it.
They should at least use an algorithm to either present a proposed schedule that they can tweak, or on the back side to check it or inequities and propose fixes.
This isn't some new idea, we've been using computers for this kind of thing for decades now. And to be clear, they are using computers, but it sounds like the primary inputs are human and the computer just "fills out the rest" (is an actual quote).