Twisting my words much? Old system was good for certain classes and players of (extremely) high level. From what I remember, at that time most Mercs were footmen with shields and swords/spears (you are/were pikeman, I know that). Very few were above level 40.
Battle on Pecores server was dominated by: a) heavy cavalry (like most Pecores of that time and infamous the_Finn), b) high wpf archers, c) horse archers (they were like the plague, especially Cris) and of course, 2H brutes (SUPERBEAST, Leed, Georges, Casimir).
New system completely changed that and worked in your favor. At the same time, I was on Shogunate server where they did extensive training with pikes and spears. But I doubt they ever had connections you guys had at that time (chadz never liked Ujin).
I'm not biased, because I "emerged" from the crowd six months after new system was implemented. Just saying how I remember it. Maybe I'm a bit senile, who knows