Except they aren't "forcing" anyone to do anything. If both flights aren't buying mercs with dom money, it makes the fight fair. If individual players choose to buy mercs, it's literally a choice. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean that it goes against team play. Dom teams are allowed to set the terms for battle. Nature and Plague decided that they'd like to spend their flight bank money on something besides mercs. It's not that big of a deal. It's not even that uncommon, they just decided to announce it instead of leaving people wondering.