I don't understand why they absolutely are determined to keep FF on for Random Battles. For Ranked to keep balance, sure, but people play Random Battles to relax and not to worry about getting penalty because someone ran into their torps.
On the last live stream they were promoting how friendly this event is to free 2 play by saying you can get so many tokens using ships that you can't actually get without paying or spending tokens in the first place. It's sad how desperately they want people to get invested into this meh event so they are more eager to open their wallet when they are just a few tokens off their next reward.
Most players will never be able to reach any of the useful rewards, it's made on purpose that way so you will feel invested and you will be more likely to open up your wallet.
Does this mean no CVs and AA heavy ships being made useless? Radar ships getting a huge advantage? Not that I'm a huge fan of how CVs are now but T6 or T8 would be a lot more interesting from a balance and gameplay point of view. Steel decrease also makes no sense, just because it's a lower tier doesn't mean the games are significantly shorter or easier.