you see, nothing can shock me in this game, it's not about me personally, because we have been playing it for many years with different tactics, but it all comes down to something meaningless, twisting the difficulty to the maximum does not solve fundamental problems, but only creates distortions and imbalances.
You mentioned freedom, that's why I'm talking about this option, and the statistics will show how people want to play. With or without attacks on the base. By the way, the cost of the main structures and the impossibility of their transfer directly affects the need to protect them. At the moment, the game is only about protecting the character, and not about protecting your property.
the ladder is an interesting idea, but again the hammer turret will keep them from gathering. And it won't solve the problem of using a self-healing structure through quests. Experience by the way, in general, does not disappear, the same hammer turret will do its job. I think that we need to think comprehensively about this problem, any innovation changes the rules of the game. Probably, the question is in the concept to which one should strive, what is it now?