First, the complaint certainly was made, and by all accounts, it is at odds with some of the core design philosophies of the game. Any component of this game that can be enjoyed solo (lost sectors) should be equally, if not more enjoyed, with friends/others. Not less enjoyed, as was the case with the first faction rally. Now sure, this likely wasn't the main reason they pushed this change, but I think your expectation of that sort of explanation is faulty. That just isn't how communication is done these days. They're going to spin it to make it sound good. And seriously, can you really fault them for wanting to remove counter-intuitive farming methods? This absolutely needed to change. The way it was set up wasn't fun.