What was the original intent it deviated from?
I find the WaW a great addition. High level players with BB5 and BB6 can go all out and other players can go and enjoy GB without many BB5's and BB6's.
It's like a blitz with larger ships kind of gamemode which am sure allot of people enjoy.
Believe me, super vetted crew won't give you allot of an edge either, cuz anyone who gets in your range will end up raining 4 salvos on you in less then 10 seconds. No repair rate, or even speed will help you that much. Not to mention lose vets on your precious supervetted crew(aka the inconvienience of disconnecting when losing vets).
The death rate is as noticeble as the exp. rate.