i'd explain myself, but BFG has done a pretty good job of that.
what really got me about your post, though, was the thing about being compensated for something that wasn't taken away from you. you lost no tech, so why should you be paid for it? sure, your NS went down, but so did everyone else's. and on top of that, the tech you do have is now functionally stronger than before, regardless of how it is quantified. NS was always meant to give a numerical representation of the strength of a nation. the over-inflated value of tech made that number completely inaccurate. now it's more in line with what tech actually does for your nation.
as for trading infra... no thanks. that would make the inflation problem in CN so much worse. there is way to much money floating around and trading infra would inevitably lead to selling infra like tech, which would in turn lead to ever more money in the game.