Could someone explain to me what makes "wildly fluctuating numbers" such a bad thing? The numbers can change drastically during the day anyway. If you could switch to the low numbered side, that would help balance the numbers. The people that switched and soon became the high numbered side could switch again to re-balance the numbers. If they didn't switch, ENY would come into play. Well it would, if ENY started kicking in at a smaller numbers imbalance.
If HTC really wants balanced sides, players should be allowed to make that happen, by joining the low numbered side.
ENY seems to encourage side switching, while the wait time discourages it. They work against each other.