I may avoid using those features, you're right. You may even be happy if those "bad guys" will leave the game at a certain point because of our/their (I don't know if you're counting me on this or not, I guess yes) discomfort.
But the outcome in terms of users isn't supporting your thesis. I wonder if you'll be that happy by the time where forums will be full of the 2000 happy users still there, with everyone so satisfied about the level of competition everywhere.
It seems pretty clear to me that something is not going into the right direction. And numbers are showing this. Even taking a look to other browser games, everywhere the number of users is dropping compared to years ago, but not everywhere the rate of decline or the % of users remaining is that low compared to before.
I guess BBs are not going to, or able to, modify the game engine. This could even be fine, cause there are several other things that could be done. But, as a long time user paying supporter and Utopia, I have all the right to express how I'd like BBs to develop the game. And, as I said, I gave a good feedback on other things such as the secondary staff.
I'm paying to play because I'd like to give them a chance to have enough resources to develop important stuff. Investing 6 months into this update isn't, to me, a good use of the money I (or others thinking like me) gave them throughout years.