For whatever reason, players and staff members who have never themselves attempted to try a Roleplaying round seem to act as if they have any idea of what one actually entails, which I personally find hilarious 
Forgotten_Marshal is entirely correct with his statements. Over my time here being a creator within the S1914 Roleplaying community, I have also spent an exorbitant amount of money for Goldmark and other premium currency in order to provide more effective administration within my rounds. (probably 20-25% of what Marshal has.)
just as a clarification, Gold is used within RP rounds by the Admins in order to more quickly create historical borders (improve morale in provinces to create the american borders faster with less rebelling provinces), provide balance for nations, penalize rulebreakers (ex: you build a fort that you weren't allowed to, we spybomb it down), or in certain cases, entirely wipe out players that choose to go rogue within the round. It is our way of establishing effective control and administration over something that is naturally incredibly difficult to create.
Adding elite AI has no effect on the types of rounds we create, so its more or less a null point. However, The removal of unit trading and resource trading unless in coalitions, as many of you have already stated, is something that disrupts the game diplomacy and economy massively, and is essentially railroading us into only choosing certain paths of expansion. Bad enough for the regular players, but for those who do RP, it does the following:
-Nations are no longer able to communicate with one another and trade resources to establish a sense of realism and diplomacy within the round proper, causing more aggressive plays contributing to the death of the rp more quickly.
-Following large scale wars, players cannot contribute to their nation's economy by selling off units and gaining some revenue in the form of resources or money, cutting off another aspect of actual IRL diplomacy (countries sell military equipment, get used to it.)
-Finally, nations that have been in large scale wars cannot be replenished after losing significant portions of their army, cutting off another aspect of RP and actual irl diplomacy. (condottieri within the medieval ages, volunteer soldiers or mercenary brigades in the Spanish civil war, etc.)
My solution has always been for whatever updates are created for main games, for unranked rounds to not include the arbitrary changes in order for our aspect of the community to continue to exist, as we do provide a benefit if properly supported.
A solution for this situation seems rather obvious, I, as well as other RP creators would be delighted to simply pay bytro directly for a private map to be created for us, along with specifications that we desire.
Something like this:
=I am allowed creative freedom to administer to my liking (ie remove rulebreakers from the round).
=Where staff will respond to requests in a punctual manner (like within 12 hours), or the creation of a staff position for this sort of thing.
=Where unit trades, resource trades, or trades in general are allowed to happen.
=Where the map borders could be created for us or some sort of speedier border setup could be made for us.
My criticism is constructive, we are rightfully upset, but we are not a community that would hesitate to pay money for something if we were given appropriate options instead of simply forced to oblige to mandatory and arbitrary updates. I personally would not hesitate to spend 1000+ per year if i am given something to spend it on.
