Fleet Admiral Hood, I would agree with you, if this were a case of incautious upgrades causing a weapon to no longer suit a play style. That is a strategic decision gone wrong, and strategic decisions are good. THIS would be a case where you could ignore people that "don't grasp the concept".
Upgrades cannot be a strategic decision if there are 'correct' choices. When this happens, upgrades become no more than a formula to a player, with no strategy or decision involved because they always know how to achieve the best outcome. Right now, players learn a path through a minefield, and learn that straying from that path either doesn't help much, or sets them back.
This doesn't just hurt upgrades, either. This hurts the loot frenzy. Some of the most awesome celestial weapons I've found have been quite literally unusable, because they came with downgrades that made them worse than the cheap basic guns I can build myself. I know these guns are meant to be really cool. I know getting a flak cannon from an enemy is supposed to make me thrill with excitement. Right now it causes a little fearful trepidation, because there's about a 60% chance that its upgrades will cripple it.
