I always felt the little guys needed o allies, so at least they could try to Retal. Same with the gdi thing, i know it helps in some ways, but a little guy needs to be able to have retal options, and gdi took that away from them.
I do think those players were more concerned about their competition abusing leeches to get advantages over them more than losing land to legit retals from non competitive players though.
I know when I used to pay earth 2025 in the clan server or what ever it was called then. having offence alliances the right size meant you could land grab anyone you wanted... assuming it didn't mean a clan war. I like it this way you have a better chance keeping your land.