I miss those stats and the lean towards minor tweaks between rounds, rather then all new stats
After R4 in para/cluster fleet catches were extremely potent, especially against the smaller alliances that were spread out more. R4 with the larger player base allowed competing para/cluster alliances to be pretty successful score/size wise and very successful in getting new people to enjoy the game.
I'm of the opinion smaller tags will not fix anything. Though having played most of my PA career pre-PAX may be clouding my judgement
I had just as much fun playing in a smaller "underdog" alliance as I did playing in an "elite" alliance back then. In all honesty I think the concept of in game tags is the baser cause of the stagnation, not the tag size.
The occasional draft round might be interesting though