I'm with both of you. I have over 1,000 hours on the game, but it's getting less now. I am kind of pigeonholes into having to play certain factions, whereas previously there was a freedom to play any character you wanted. Since I don't need any cards or BP for the Locals faction this means I no longer play the locals. But there has been many times when I told myself, "I better play Doldren on this map." or "I feel like Harec today." But then I stop myself and remind myself that I don't need faction for locals (I don't see common BP anymore so there isn't any chance for me to get those for the Locals) and I feel like I would be wasting rewards playing the Locals and then force myself to play one of the characters from the factions I need. This coupled with the trickling amount of faction points exhaust me from playing.
We used to get 5k to 10k faction for a game, and we had a chance for BP to drop for a character OTHER than what we were playing on that map therefore we had more freedom to play whomever we wanted thus keeping the game interesting. Not anymore. It's also exhausting throwing away 4800 faction on shuffling only to play 3 or 4 games just to shuffle ONE time again and not get your card. It's exhausting and tiresome.
EDIT: But I'm hopeful, and I think you guys are to, that they will be changing this. I couldn't imagine they would keep it this way after the poor reception, nor do I think they foresaw the consequences or did it intentionally. I just don't believe that. So I'll keep grinding faction at this INSANELY slow pace for now with no hope I will see a common BP until an update, for now.