^- Band aid.
I think Swat's real complaint is the same one people leveled against me in Nations at War, that the guy running the show skewed things in his favor; you're not running things exactly, but you are a moderator. Looking back I can't pretend I didn't (even though I thought I was being fair, and I was trying to), and looking here I think I can see it too. The very existence of those NPC nations, as Swat sees it (I think that's what he means, and I at least see it this way) was for you to take them over, whereas the NPCs act as an expansion blocker for everyone else (especially since they surround everyone else and where there were easier, unclaimed, areas for you to conquer you went for the jugular of your neighbor who was specifically engineered as Erinaum's twin).
Just my thoughts. Could be otherwise, and I hope it is.