We have not really been that better than Real in the transfer market. Sure we have not had many high profile failures like Kaka (I can only think of Ibra) but the resale from our part had been dreadful. (We got less than Ozil, an AM, for Alexis Sanchez, a forward, from the very same Arsenal! That example should explain it very well.... Traditionally, forwards have been more expensive than Mid fielders who cost more than the defenders!)
Though Real did buy more stars than they needed (And also probably spent more than us), they never had very big trouble offloading them like we did. Think about di Maria and Ozil to get an idea! I mean they got almost as much for Morata as we did for Pedro Rodriguez, a WC and Euro cup winner for Spain, a treble winner for us! We got peanuts for Fabregas as well, who has had a similar profile as did Pedro! And logically he should have got us much, much more than Ozil did for them considering Cesc was a star in England and there was no risk factor involved whatsoever!!
So why are we not getting good amount in sales like they do? It only boils down to heavy wages! Whatever money that Real are spending as transfer money, we are probably more than compensating it by our wage bill!
So, I do not think that our transfer policy has really been much better than Real, if any at all