How 4 or 5 sneaks, which by definition are only going to be successful if the other side doesn't notice, are less an avoidance of actual fighting then 1 big overwhelming attack, I just don't see. I don't see that either approach encourages any fighting at all.
I'm using tactics, where as your comparing them to endless NOE horde attacks.
A mission with tactics can be defeated with better tactics. Miss-direction isn't avoiding a fight, its out plating the other players. Horde NOE doesn't take any skill, or thought, and in most case unbeatable. Creating many little fights than you could lose creates more challenge, more fun. Where as a horde NOE creates a large group of unskilled players rolling base after base until even THEY get bore.
The point here is there are no tactics, there are no players trying to put "game" back into the game. So we get people subscribing, unsubscribing, taking breaks, announcing their returns so on and so on, all because they are bored out of their trees by either hording base after base, or trying to stop a horde.
Maybe it's time people try to learn how to play the game and see ALL that it really offers, instead of the same old thing.