and trying to use your brain is not fun?
Well, we definitively have a different definition of "fun"
You can use your brain in all sorts of ways in the current siege mode. I know I can hold a moderate space far better than I can a narrow one, so I often try to defend the gatehouse rather than defend bottle-necks. Other players with other weapons can find where they're most useful, while others can still try to
outsmart the enemy team altogether. The main difference in how players outsmart one another now is in where they apply pressure and what kind of pressure they apply, rather than seeing how wacky and unreachable they can make attacking ladders.
The principle difference between ladders and no-ladders is that right now most players are on the same page when it comes to objectives that are higher or lower priority at a given time. Before, not so much.