The issue with F2P is that there's never going to be an overwhelming winner which makes it difficult to actually prove you're #1.
The clans that are duking it out are all pulling highish, which means that "clean" fights will take longer to finish. Tie this isn't the fact that when a clan is losing, they just pull it towards the nearest return spot and as there's no more hopping timer you've basically got an endless fight. Therefore, it doesn't become a matter of who got the most kills or who killed who, it just amounts to who doesn't get bored/give up first - which means the #1 clan isn't determined by the 'quality' of the clan's performance.
I guess you could say it's good for the community to be this competitive, but at the same time it's also pretty crappy as clans rarely win clear fights anymore. You don't have that epic showdown fight (that almost all rivalries used to have) that the community looks forward to each weekend where a clear winner would always prevail.