I personally don't like early wars because it feels like the wars go on forever if it's not a straight up gangbang and dealt with quickly. On the other side of the sword, if you're on the losing side you end up getting farmed for weeks until the set restarts.

Early wars have had their purpose in the past though, and I think that they should still be allowed and unaltered. The most recent early war I organized was to basically beat up on SOL after they wiped the floor with us the previous set. We came back and lost, but we fluffed their countries for the eventual later war. That was very satisfying. :P

The point is, most alterations that have been suggested to make FSes less powerful, kills take longer, wars more gimped all hurt the small and midsized alliances the most.