Kudos to your stance on that matter, Tydeus.
I think a proper 1-life-conquest-mode should simply be made and tested, so people can see if it is really so inferior to their precious team-deathmatch-battle-mode. I bet after short time the conquest mode would become more popular than the battle mode, especially among the infantry players who tend to be the loudest anyway. I could imagine that cavalry or ranged players could perhaps like it a bit less, since the kills they score don't count as much any more, and for some reason I bet cavalry and archers would kill less infantry in general, for some mysterious reason...
The reason would be that most players would concentrate on the flag and thus there would be less autowalker-Rambo-lemmings, the different infantry classes would cooperate more together, negating their weaknesses and improving their strenghtes, in combination with being more defensive around the flag und thus being more aware of their surroundingsBut since most infantry players would probably drift to conquest, the others would have to follow, and I bet all looms I have that after some time it would turn out that cavalry and archers could use a buff again. Which, I hope, makes conquest attractive for them again.