Just to clarify: I can totally get whining about the node cracking. It's just the "OMG the Sansha incursions happened regardless of what we did" that I found a bit... off.
I don't think anyone is saying that.
It's the one-sidedness of a lot of the events. The handful of occasions where the "objective complete" happened, despite the carrier being lost. Things when if the players turned up in rookieships, it wouldn't have made any difference to the way events unfolded.
Difference between "oh, we lost." and "curse you Kuvakei! you have sown the whirlwind and shall reap the hurricane!".
Like, I don't feel any achievement shooting a t1 fit frigate when flying a t2-fit Arbitrator with t2 drones.
I also don't feel any loss losing a t1 fit cruiser against a t2-fit Hurricane.
But I did feel some sense of achievement taking on 3 punishers in a Retribution, killing 2, damaging the 3rd, but losing the Retribution, even though I lost.