Let me start by saying this was misinterpreted "But saying the point of the game is not to beat the unbeatable team is simply not true for everyone."
I didn´t say "beat", I said "build". Which is actually the point you see as frustrating, so we´re not even arguing that point. But I think our idea of what "competitive" means is different. For me it simply means being able to participate in the trophy battles so everyone on the team can get their Hobby Collector accolade complete. When a team is too strong to be defeated even with a full trophy case, where is the competitiveness? There is none. And the server as a whole suffers because, as you said, when players are seeing they have no chance of being competitive, they lose interest. Every player who quits a game is another nail in that games coffin. GAMES are supposed to be FUN after all.
As to players joining top teams instead of building their own to be competitive, I can´t say I see that as a proven point. Even when they are in said top team they often quit. I remember when the UK2 team I am on came out of nowhere and were glued into 3rd place for a while. I remember it like it was yesterday. At that point we had about 8 players swiped, 2 by the top team and 6 from the 2nd place team. To put it in perspective, the server hadn´t even been online for 3 months and a top team that was 100% upgraded already had 6 players to replace. Just think about that for a minute.
As to quitting, I´m already mentally gone. Just going through the motions right now to take care of unfinished business and seeing whats happening with the teams I´m on so that those who are still interested in playing get on to other teams or somebody steps up to fill my roles, but once I´ve burned my diamonds I´ll only be logging in on those servers to register for fights to save the teams on doubles until decisions can be made and I can finally delete all my characters. 2 are already gone, the rest will disappear after my presence is no longer needed.
Sorry for misunderstanding your comments about competitiveness. Indeed, we are generally in violent agreement. 
Your story about coming from nowhere to #3, in a way, illustrates my point. It is comparatively quite easy to get to #3. But top 2 is a big hurdle - because those studios are getting big energy advantages. I have seen many #3 to #10 studios founder as you describe. The competitive players realize if they want to be in a #1 studio, their choices are 1) giving up completely and leaving the game, 2) joining the top 2 studios that are sitting on the energy trophies, and only very rarely, 3) forming a supergroup to challenge the top two. #3 happens rarely because bosses don't want to stop being bosses and generally don't move -- and their players loyally stay with the boss.
The social cohesiveness of a studio is very important, of course. Even daunting hurdles can be defeated if the group stays united and focused. Busty Spiderbabes got lucky - We not only merged with HoosierDaddys Girls to form a mini-supergroup, but we did it just as The Pimp imploded, leaving us as heir apparent for #2. On the UK1 server, Abusement Park was not so lucky... we are #3 and are unlikely to progress further, unless and until Hardcore or Striped Pantsu suffer social collapse.
