Russia could show their sports muscles in the single European Championships either way (if they were led to).
I fail to see what is threatening for about 20 sports of their regular continental Championships. Are fencing, rowing, wrestling, weightlifting, gymnastics, canoeing etc. doing these blockbuster ratings and revenues, that i am not aware of? If the European Games are built into a big deal, then the benefits for these sports would be much better, then their week long regular Europeans, which come and go. Maybe the only thing i can think of, is that they don't want other sports to overshadow their EC, when it is in a multi-sport event.
I agree on expenses being higher now, which is why team sports shouldn't be included (in addition to their calendar already being stuffed), though having volleyball in Baku was great, even if it wasn't with A players.
Tennis has it's own thing, they are out, which leaves only athletics and swimming. Both of those are the only ones, which are strong enough to generate big revenue through their European Championships and don't need the European Games.
Maybe the only way this could work is if the IOC took the European Games, Asian Games, Pan-American Games etc. like stepchild's and help with the organization and intertwine the Olympic qualification with these continental Games.