eeeh. Your all very descent multiplayers. Whats sparked the hate for comp stomps? I mean if your trying to convince others to come play with you through hate posts and hate mail then that won't work.
Comp-stomps allow people to rank up there experience or skill level in strategic executions but their micro can only be improved vs human players. Its still fun to play as you get comfortable with the game and enjoy watching replays to learn new skills and see if you can defeat an ai before your human ally. I use to do this alot with my chinese roomate back in london when playing supreme commander forged alliance.
You can't just dive into ico or should i say steam empty handed with no experience, build 50 turrets around your planet thinking your defending your self only to realize there no planets left to colonize and your all alone in the galaxy.
This is the reason why humans suck so badly because we can't even establish our first colony on moon because we are busy fighting amongst each other on earth. We need to imagine theres an AI race of robotics invading galaxies and colonizing planets--that way the fear or "time of war" scenario kicks in and everybody realizes the real threat is not the russians, arabs, chinese, americans, africans, koreans, idians and the australians. My point being comp stomping builds skills its own way and emphasizes the importance of space exploration and expanding your empire as quickly as possible.