Sorry, but I don't buy that it's a simple fix explains everything. Lots of issues, which I expect you already know, could be done with a simple fix (Factional Warfare issues as example).
That's not a "simple fix". You're not taking into account that the
slightest adjustments of things in any system of that nature require a massive amount of testing, retesting, and checking.
That's
not a simple fix. That's
a lot of man-hours involved in making sure that it is balanced.
This is a major problem with perception that people have in regular systems, and also has a lot to do with what I was saying before about people not understanding game design.
In a system that involves direct conflict there needs to be a maintained balance. If you make any adjustments anywhere in the system, you throw off that balance that is in place, and in doing so you need to repair the balance before you can ship it out. That makes
most systems in a Game,
most expecially an MMO, very difficult to adjust. They are not "simple fixes" they are a lot of hours nudging, tweaking, testing, nudging more, testing again, rebalancing, testing, and so on.
And that doesn't take into account how adjustments made to rebalance one system will then affect an entirely different system that also has to be checked.
Now compare that to something that consists of reading some numbers for a while, then hitting "F3", typing in a flag string, and deleting every instance of it.
That is a simple fix.
Further, CCP has obviously spend time discussing this and it isn't any low level dev who have been spending time writing the blog, it is Mr. Zulupark himself. Realistically, it is properly two-three full working days for four people or so. Very odd priority of resources, I think.
Yet you don't know what else they're doing. Those "two-to-three full working days for four people or so" that you're bringing up as a completely random number (could have been 10 minutes for all you know, also could have been weeks) very likely consisted of pouring over data
they would already be pouring over to begin with for other things they're doing.
In fact, I will call it immensely poor order of priority. This issue should be at the bottom of the pile, not on the top. It has never been pressed by the CSM or any group of players otherwise.
Who says it wasn't? Stuff on the bottom of the pile can often end up happening first when you're watching over its data already while doing other things (for instance other market-related systems being discussed, which is of utmost importance all the time) and a decision could be made quickly while doing other things.
Without being privy to their development process, and without understanding the
actual amount of work that is involved in some of these "simple fixes" people are asking for (which are not, in any way, simple) instead, people are talking out of their butts.
Much ado about nothing, I say.