The old system failed badly when it came to limiting combinations that were simply too good. Of course a few selected people enjoyed it like hell, but I can guarantee that it was a very one-sided fun they had.
The "veteran + skype friend" factor has been mentioned often enough.
About the "I stole it!" rp: Seriously: No one forbids rping for your foreign tech. And quite some people do it.I think that less visible rp is around because fewer people fly mixed tech these days. And that's actually good thing, as it portrays the normal state of things much better.
Moreover no one punished you in the old days if you just took something for real without being listed on some tech-grant post. That option only existed in theory, but I have never seen a sanction for it or any noteworthy repercussions.
So... it was as it always is: there were shiny, cool things. A few greedy folks would not listen to warning and would not self-restrict their choices, thus driving the system to bizarre extremes. After a few months/years?, things became obviously bad. A solution was found. And the shiny toys died.
