We should take a step back and look at the latest patches and see this from a war game stand point. In any war game, be it an old fashioned board-game (Risk, Chess etc) or Supremacy, we are all looking at what are the moves of our opponent.
These are the facts in this "game" we are playing with "the company" (Bytro does not like it's name mentioned in a derogatory sense or tone. This can lead to repercussions...)
1. "The Company" likes it when people buy gold marks. It pays the bills pure and simple. I will not go into gold mark abuse in many of the games but the few (key word) that spend lavishly help them economically.
a. Financial types in the company can easily track each player and divide them into those who buy gold marks and those who don't.
b. A financial decision must have been made by the powers that be to turn Supremacy and other games into a pay to play. They tease players to play for free but in the end the free persons get steam rolled and eventually give up or break out the credit card
2. "The Company" is easily tracking who is complaining and who is not. They can use their computers and report to the powers that be that on any given day they have X amount of players playing in Y games. From this, how many are complaining about an update and how may are complacent about the changes. Point summary - if we are the minority, there will be no changes.
3. If the people that are complaining are also those who spend lavishly, then "the company" will listen as they do not want their gravy train/s to go away.
4. In the meantime, just like the main cell phone manufacturers, they do not want you to buy a cell phone and keep it that way for life. They want you to buy a new one every 2-3 years (read pay to play...) "The company" is going down the same path.
Point Summary - we all wish for the earlier versions of Supremacy, but sadly I feel those days are in the past. We can vote with our feet but we will be replaced by newer players who never knew what the game was like in it's heyday.