I don't really see your problem with non-gapped ladders.
Since the maximum distance for a ladder is between 123 and 127 blocks, it's only 223 logs to make a ladder that long, and if you are going to do that, you'll probably have a decents source of trees anyway.
Considering it's 112 logs to make a ladder that size in pre-1.5, it's still a fair amount of trees.
I just hope weather is toggleable.