You're taking away all my fun, listing all the disadvantages right off the bat.
Anyway, yeah, I dislike the counting member system for alliances for all the reasons you listed. For galaxies, I think there's good reason to implement it, though. First, since they contain so few planets, 1 more or less can make a world of difference. Second, since it makes a world of difference, half the universe
already doesn't count: they're in galaxies that have too few planets. No matter how hard they work, they won't ever be able to compete for #1. Going to a system in which (on average) half the galaxies have just 1 non-counting member is an improvement.
Minor nitpick: take
largest (non-1:1, non c200) galaxy, minus 1, not average. With late-starting removed, it should(?) be impossible for a galaxy to have
two more planets than another galaxy outside of the exile bracket. That way you never have to worry about having galaxies with 2 non-counting members. I want as many counting planets in the universe as possible, for all the reasons you listed.
You know what, your listing of disadvantages is growing on me. I can just say "yeah, because of what you said" while making all my outrageously unfounded claims. And yet, here I am, still on 4 paragraphs.
Random semi-related idea that I'm too lazy to make my own thread for: closed and deleted planets to take up a permanent counting-score slot, both for galaxies and alliances. Kicking or exiling a closed-but-not-yet-deleted planet before it's deleted should not work, obviously, or maybe just be made impossible.