I do not see why people complain this change makes an army less worth, or nukes that much harder to obtain. Before, having a large army wasn't really an advantage, as it raised your NS so much larger nations could declare on you. Now however, the NS increase you receive should not make that much of a difference in who can attack you, thus having a full military is a meaningful way of protecting you from the first strikes. As for the top 5 being harder to reach, thats exaggerated. Like previously mentioned, the nations who have 20 nukes has an economically disadvantage, so outgrowing them is a possibility. Also, since the system is made so that each nukes gets worth more NS strength wise, the first nuke is still worth only 50 NS. That means that nations reaching top 5% days before you won't get a large NS advantage that unfairly keeps them in top 5%.
To sum it up, great change Admin