@BPoff71I suspect the original thinking was thus: if you're already in the middle of the map then you're almost certainly engaging with enemies and evo-ing up that way. Harvesters favored the edges for more conservative players who drop cold and work their way in, and can have a crack at a decent shield without hot dropping in the quarantine zone.
The entire evo-through-engagement philosophy is classic Respawn social engineering. "Streamers want more fights earlier in the game so we have to stop people dropping cold and getting lucky with a shield." You want to play the game your own way? Wrong. Now you have to play it the streamers' way, which I'm sure most people already were, but so much for personal choice.
Now, with harvesters favoring higher-traffic areas, there just isn't any room at all for the cautious player. I get to the final four and I have... a level two shield? Instaquit. Thanks for nothing, Respawn.