Fact: Travian has major game balance issues, on par with Cabdru being in the same PK range as a level 11 transmuter. And getting unholy charges from it.
Fact: Travian is now entering a phase where people have catapults, which can have an equivalent effect to casting a 220 hour forget spell. We're beyond the stage of "make a big cranny and laugh when the attacker gets nothing.
Fact: A lot of CFers are not close to getting catapults.
Reality: It is in everyone's best interests to keep the catapults away from CFers cities.
One way to do this is to negotiate with other large alliances. But negotiation is the equivalent to a business beauty pagent. And when you show up to the mass interview with multiple inactives, farms, low avg population, and a #100ish ranking, you aren't looking as good as some of the other guys. There's not much incentive to deal with you because you look inexperienced and non-threatening. So this reorganization puts the best face on CF for the benefit of everyone.
Yes, there are other people like Java that think the main point is to "let the winners win." And others that want to be on a competitive team. But I think we can all get behind the positive rationale that something has to be done to improve the alliance's image if it is not already too late.