A few of us who have been looking towards getting a beacon, decided to postpone everything beacon related due to the massive hits being done by some top leagues atm AND the beacon massacres. It started just getting all too hard. Staying in make def mode for a long, long, long, long, long time became safer for survival. Frankly, limiting the nos of occasions is great.
The small leagues know they cant fight the big leagues in fort flag. That's a major reason why they just give up and don't participate. Big leagues being able to hit the lower leagues makes that even more likely. Also the rewards aren't that great to start with. Why bother? Certainly also means they have no reason to put units in a fort and that achieving fort safe levels 5 and 8 are even more important.