I came into this thread with the view that nation threads are good for the community but after reading the OP and all the posts I kind of agree that they should be done away with. Back when they first started I despised them but over the past 6 months or so when I got my XB1 the community in XBE really helped me and I found a lot of value in having a community thread, but you're right there has been a decline in news threads being created due to these nation threads and therefore we're only ever really seeing one side of the argument...so yeah maybe you should do a trial period where the nation threads are locked for 2 weeks or so and see how it goes.
My prediction threads:
Wii U will sell under 40m units (made on 14th September 2012)
PS Vita will sell under 20m units (made on 30th September 2012)
Wii U will sell under 7m in 2013 - I was right
