Conflict between players certainly has its place in the game insofar as only one country can finish in first place. There are many different methods of gaining networth by taking resources from other players such market buyouts, landgrabs, and spy ops. That doesn't make it a "war game". When people claim that it's a "war game", what they usually mean is that they want to grief other players without limits.

I'd even go so far as to say that it's totally legitimate for the guy in second place to GS away the bushel stock of the guy in first place if the second place player thinks that taking that risk would secure him the win. Express style GDI does restrict that style of play which is unfortunate. Historically speaking, special attacks on solo servers are almost never used that way. They are used to make trouble and to ruin the fun of other players.