Yes for 1) but no for 2)
I understand better farms will be available even if those 26pts are removed but they are still a decent target for farming and having them doesn't hurt in any way or shape so why remove them ?
to be honest i just cant understand someone signing up to play a world then never logging in after that, they are purely there just to go barb and be farmed.
Inno/TW send emails to players if villages go unattended for to long but they still dont log in to play, making me think they never intended to play the world to begin with.
so far on the world there are roughly
9,082 players (1,300 of which on 26pts)
10,892 villages (so lets say 1,810 natural barbs to make up the difference).
HP has always been no pp exchange. People continue to whine on the forums for pp less worlds, when we are given them in HP and the last "normal" world that was "no premium exchange" was tiny compared to other "normal" worlds and showed inno that everyone complaining about wanting a pp "free" world wasn't really willing to come back, or else is still playing anyways. No motivation for them to make another world like that outside of say "w150" or something. If you want to play without pp exchange. then join the next HP. Although with new updates for HP it might be called "classic" now. Otherwise its around to stay, and its not like pp guarentees people a "win" anyways. Plenty of examples of pp whales losing worlds left and right. And players who don't spend much pp at all who make it to end game. In reality all you really need to compete for the world win, if you want rank 1 then yes you need pp, is PA and AM. These can easily be bought by pp farming, even for just a week or so on the world you want to play, before restarting to the rim.
once again this is not a thread about removing the pp exchange
but instead a delayed pp exchange for 14-30days to remove the abuse of it
while repurposing it back to what i personally believe it was first introduced for - to help the late starters catch up, leveling the playing field and increasing overall competition between new and old players per world.
think of it as a middle ground or compromise between those both for and against the pp exchange.
i might add if experienced players aint willing to wait 14-30days for the pp exchange to become available, wouldnt new players be even less inclined to spend time pp farming before playing a world??