I also dislike the SP dropping, however i would think it would be a good choice to give players the option to SP drop without causing a mess, mainly for the reasons of being able to fight more relaxing matches where you as the player could fight with low level mechs against other low level mechs (so pretty much both sides would be equal in equipment, but still low level)
Another issue is that sometimes your own SP is high because of how you set up your weapons and mechs, yet your mechs end up being glass cannons against others with similar SP...than there is also the fact that some achievements require using lower levels weapons if i remember correctly.