[Ceadrath]

As far as your point 1 goes, I see it more of a way for people who missed the round start for whatever reason to be less of an underdog and be at a significantly smaller disadvantage with the support of a bp ingal, rather than if they'd just got put in a random gal where with them starting late they'd be exiled time after time.

2, As far as people choosing not to sign up at tick 0 then meh, personally i cant see why you'd choose to disadvantage yourself so much with missing a third of the round, and take yourself out of the running for a decent planet. I'm sure it does happen, but i'm damned if i can see the reasoning behind it.

3, Again, i see it as an option for players new or old who missed the round start and wish to give themselves the best possible chances of doing well. In this case its beneficial for people to have the advantages of a bp rather than just going random, tho how many totally new people will have friends already in bp's is debatable.

4, Yeah it does seem like a replacement, it'd be interesting to see how many more bp's their are this round than last, and how many people actually got added to bps from tick 336 onwards as well. However the fact that the number of gals is set before is important, presuming that people use tick 336 to add members and the amount of actual bp's and therefore gals is increased, means that you have a greater proportion of players in bp's than before, which creates more gals and as such smaller gals, even if you can end up with the same number of people in the bp after tick 336. So yes it is an addition to bp's, but it has the desired effect of making smaller gals.

so yeah, in my view at least it was intended to allow players who signed up late a better chance of doing well by joining an established bp, rather than waiting for the next round/not bothering because their too far behind or w/e.