How did anyone think this era system was a good idea?

They won’t obviously they never do so why now 

EA Execs thought it was a great "idea". Revenue always is. If the game is in decline squeeze as much as you can out of the tube. 

Becasue this state of the game is utterly unplayable.

Some bean counter said, "It'll increase revenue because they'll have to spend over 400 per character instead of the 150ish they were spending for the last year or so!"

And whoever makes decisions at CG has zero common sense and doesn't want to hear common sense responses such as, "This system is dumb, it makes no sense, players are going to hate it, and most of all we aren't explaining well why we're doing it, or why it's necessary."  

But then, the same person probably made the decision for CG to move to these same forums that are a pile of dung that even beetles don't want anything to do with.  There's an 8th grade class somewhere spending all their time keeping this forum working because CG spends 27 cents on upkeep and stability.

You can't fix a problem when blinded by greed

I like SW and the characters but now hate CG and EA

It’s awful. Really dislike it. Just seems like an annoyance task or money grab to really get anywhere. Def not a fan