You are incorect. You could never drop it to 0, only 25. We did make a change to increase the min.
But the change was made not for furballing. The strat system has always been designed to limit the countries offense, not shut them down from defending.
That is why the change was made, because after the move of the towns, the short fuel load started removing the ability to fight, and with out fighting the game is not fun.
HiTech