See, back then I would have said AE should give maybe %70 xp similar "real" content would give, and the only other rewards being AE tickets, on the theory that AE is only a computer game after all, but thats too far in the past now, and we're stuck with it as it is.
I don't support removing anything thats in place that isn't actually broken, INF should never have been added to AE, it was a stupid decision in pretty much every way, but not only has the horse bolted the daed barns burnt down now.
100% agree with everything you've said, though to answer your initial question, I believe it was player lobbying on live (by lobbying I mean whining and bugging the dev's until they gave in)
I have a scrapper with Ninja run as his only travel ability (ok has a jetpack, but I don't think I've used it in 10's of levels) and he still regularly beats ss characters to the mish door...
I have no characters with SS, (as a travel, I have a few with hasten though) I had one character on live with it, I respeced out of it because SS as a travel power makes me want to slit my wrists.
NO
there is no doing it wrong in City, it's pretty much the whole selling point of the game that there is NO WRONG WAY
why the hell does it matter if someone has 2500 characters in their bio? noone is holding a gun to your head to read it!