Fans

You forget my plan for gvg, fans mean nothing. And if someone's sim city experience gets downgraded so that the rugby management aspect is improved then I am all for that. The great rivalries occur when great teams play each other, not when one goes and hides in a different division. So where you see problems I see strengths. The beauty of the game, it's not played just one way from one perspective. With that said I would accept your proposal that the higher ranked you are the more fans you have. Anything to encourage competition and discourage hiding.
Edinburgh now play at Myreside, home of Watsonians. No atmosphere at Murrayfield due to lack of fans^^

Back on topic, there should be some form of compensation for winning a defence as there is an a GvG. The current Percentage of Gate Money is laughable.
I wouldn't say I manipulate my rating hutchie, It's not like I've got a load of 10 rated players dragging my rating down . For me the reward isn't great enough getting £200,00 a game or 250 not sure what it is to gain a 1000 fans then lose e'm like . I would probably play more if the amount of times you could be challenged was limited to 5 a day and you got rewarded for the challenges you held when played against, like you can only play 5 map games meaning you can only get 5000 a day but you can be challenged up 20 times a day sometimes at the top end but other than your name on a leaderboard if your lucky enough to be in the top 100 where is the incentive?
To quote a famous american battle commander, name enough