Favoritism causes more problems then it creates.
*brain explodes*
Favoritism causes more problems then it solves too

And it also causes more problems then it creates; as the problems are created initially, it then expounds upon that exponentially creating more problems as those are solved until the favoritism ends. And so your brain can reform, confident that even though it exploded, what shouldn't have made sense does and it can now deplode itself.
Basically, PS is like a school, and the GMs and devs are like the teachers... I'm sure you've all been in a situation where a teacher has punished an entire class for one student's misbehavior. It's the same deal here.
I've been in those situations, I've also gotten those teachers in a mountain of trouble with their bosses

A bad analogy, as we aren't being punished here, and the topic isn't about the wipe, it's about how it was handled and how it sort of alienated players. I think it was created by bad communication and a number of people seeming rather uncaring in their "get over it"-esk comments.