XjabberwockieX it doesn’t really alter what I was saying, I can get your reasoning but it’s just an educated guess, nothing official, that said I know you have a higher chance of being right in your assumption, but bigger changes than what is being asked here have happened in other games when the community pushes enough for it, so any pve player requesting a mode without antagonist invasions may help.
Anyways I don’t think most pve players are asking for a removal of the antagonist but simply an additional mode without it, so it’s not like their vision has to be discarded.
Assuming you’re correct on the devs line of thought and stance on the game, maybe they should have gone all in since release and not allowed matches to start without an antagonist, that way the gameplay type/genre would have been clearer/consistent and they would only attract the type of player they apparently want.