I started my town... my one and only town... a little over a year ago. Before I even made it in a couple months, while still in Iron Age, I could already see what the Arc was about. I personally find sniping one of the aspects of the game that is most enjoyable. I enjoy looking for sniper opportunities and setting myself up to watch for the best time to hit. Sometimes I get a little profit, sometimes (though not as often) I get lucky and walk away with a heavier score. But I knew back then that the Arc would be a goal. I wanted what they had.
So I made it a point to go after it. I worked hard forging friendships and storing up forge points so I could trade for the goods and invest for the blueprints. It was hard work and it took a lot of time. But it was a goal, same as anyone else's goals. If you don't make the Arc your goal, that's on no one but you... and it isn't wrong of you... but you have a different gameplan. So be it.
I built my Arc and decided it needed to get to level 80. I worked hard again finding donors (sure, it's a little easier for the Arc, but not entirely painless). I spent many forge points of my own getting it up to level 10. Again, I had to spend lots of time and forge points to get those extra blueprints to open up more levels. Then I worked out an arrangement with a fellow guildmate to take 1st on each other's levels for half the cost of each level... which was (and still is) a forge point loss for both of us. I'm not up to level 80 yet, but we are both making steady progress.
This is the game. If you don't like strategy, then why are you here? You choose to advance in the tech tree, or build all GBs up equally over time... point farming in GvG... diamond-farming with multiple worlds... Château-ing the heck out of recurring quests... maybe you choose to do nothing... whatever your "strategy" -- you can't fault others for theirs. And some of those take advantage of some pretty "unintended" benefits in my opinion too. But I don't have time for all of that. I chose the Arc because sniping is my fun. The Arc might be slightly overpowered for a select range of levels, but the people who complain about it don't have one high enough to enjoy that benefit. Anyone in this game can enjoy that benefit equally if they work hard enough. Maybe some people work less hard. But don't diminish all of the effort I've spent to get there just because you don't wanna put the effort in yourself.