A brilliant addition but at the same time requiring so much grinding that one can ask if it's even healthy to maintain one. (as i read in the OP that Synts his real life is suffering from his base building endeavours.)
They steal way too much time from people maintaining them (and before i hear group effort, afaik group effort never lasts long on disco, eventually it's always the same people that are expected to take care of things.) and they require a ridiculous amount of capspam and time to destroy them, crippling the server in its progress.
I wish I had some constructive criticism on how to improve this but I really have no clue how.
I am sure the devs have some changes in mind though.
Anyway I believe there already have been enough discussions adressing the flaws of the current way bases are implemented.
Synts indeed does a incredible amount of work just to please other people , that deserves respect , but please man , think of yourself first.
I'd rather see people simply enjoying this game how they want instead of seeing them grind for hours and hours every day , just to make other people happy.
During one siege a group of 10 people where I was part of stayed ingame for more than 12 hours.
At the time we were insanely motivated and yes , it was something special.
On the other hand it's totally mental, crazy devotion like this to a videogame ... thát's in fact what brings out the worst in people.