Holy cow, what a debacle. Intended or not.
.
Hmm, no. Considering the changes on the BGS, this was to be expected and is not really a debacle. I mean, gone are the times when a minor power, by support of one player, could spawn over dozens of systems. They could've gone the extra effort to keep the previous status intact, resulting in such overbloated minor powers bleeding down to size over several weeks. With the corresponding players flooding the forum again every week.
.
Instead, they did not invest the extra effort but rather gave the system one week of "rattling and shaking" to sort itself out. I think it's actually the best way to go.
.
For me the bigger problem is that yesterday, in the 30 minutes I actually still took for the game, already saw several very obvious and very basic bugs, which I reported rather early in the beta. (So yes, my priority is not on the sophisticated power-user. He can and will adapt. But things which easily affect even a very casual player should really be ironed out. )
.