The point is that Intel / Self Defense should not be free, or automatic. You should actively work to keep yourself safe. Which is why you need to actively maintain watch on your Dscan. If you forget, and the service is not automated, then your forgetfulness could cost you.
There are plenty of people living, or at least operating, in WHs. The difference is that you cannot claim Sov in WHs. And you cannot use most of the Null sec mechanics (such as Cynos) in WHs.
Everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE, always whines and cries about how Cloaking needs rebalanced. Forgetting all the while, that Cloaking IS a balance mechanic. Every game has Rogues. Every game has Spies. But it’s impossible to spy on enemy movements, on enemy bases, unless you can Cloak. And you need to do so for hours at a time, b/c not everything in Eve happens in seconds or minutes. So yes, Cloaking is still perfectly balanced. They still have to decloak to act in any meaningful way, other than just watching and reporting. And they cannot act immediately after decloaking, because most ships require a recalibration time after dropping cloak. The ONLY change that Blackout has on Cloaking, is that now you don’t get to know if there’s someone out there spying on you. So now you have to actively defend your space against spies. (See #1-2)
Absolutely! Ever since they started allowing Cash → PLEX → ISK, and further ruined things with Skill Injectors, this game is most definitely Pay 2 Win. Anyone with money to spare can shake their credit card vigorously at CCP, and start flying any ship they want that same day. And where it used to be an issue of Noobs training to sit in a ship, but not having time to train for properly operating the ship, they can Inject themselves straight to Mastery 5 if they want.
BTW, “potentially cloaky” is irrelevant. There’s no difference between getting into a fight, and having more foes decloak, or having more foes warp in from somewhere. People need to stop blaming Cloaks for a situation going pear shaped. =)