I was running intel and basically set up an intel clan. I had no one join and only 1 clan hired me.
And there, I think, lies the problem.
It's kinda like these PvP MMORPGs that have castles. Who's going to stand on the walls all day to guard the castle? "It's a player issue. Players should do these things." Well, not enough people want to do it, so it doesn't get done, and the gameplay suffers as a result. Castles flip-flop back and forth because nobody wants to do the necessary, un-fun work.
We *could* hope that future Strategus rounds run a lot smoother as players suddenly volunteer to do intel work.
Or we *could* assume that players still won't want to do this sort of thing and come up with a better system.
Probably the biggest reason more people don't do intel work in Strategus is that it's time consuming and may be costly in Strat gold. Since most villages are charging 100g/hour, you can't just point your character there and log out for the night. You'll come back in the morning minus a few hundred gold.
So we can ignore the issue and say players should do it, but I don't think they will, and I think it will lead to more problems.