Realizing the math side of my brain retired years ago, I still think they get a competitive advantage, either way you look at it. If the Bucs had signed enough players to be at the league average for salaries in 2010, unless they had structured the contracts to do exactly what we got in trouble for doing, their cap hits would have been strung out over multiple years, including 2012. Unless, they signed a whole bunch of one year contracts, which, again, would seem to violate the spirit of this emphemeral non-law people keep referencing. So assuming they signed some players for 3-5 years, the cap hits would have hit their cap this year (as well as the previous two years), which may have impacted their ability to go out and sign all the big names they signed two weeks ago.
Kind of a silly exercise really, given that we aren't dealing in any reality at all; to my mind, it simply shows (yet again) another flaw in the league "logic" that dealt us this penalty.