It isn't anti-stalker propaganda.
Server should only be wiped when major changes happen. Let's say new faction or total re-balance of PVP, or bigger city, or new cost of reroll and so on... You don't just wipe for fun.
If you just want to scavenge stuff again, nobody is preventing you to do it. You can deletself your characters or make a new one, in another faction or even factionless. By the way, when we did the factionless crew, you were nowhere to be seen. You don't have to send everyone else to stone age when you can do it for yourself.
When the wipe happens, what is fun is that you have tons of new features, new maps etc... If there is nothing new to explore, there is no excitement if you already know everything, everything that was there the day before, except that you had more than a pipe rifle in your inventory. Once again, nobody is preventing you to wander with a pipe rifle today if you want to.
On the other hand, the lack of tech in cession beginning isn't symetric. Usually, within the first 24 hours of server, the biggest team of grinders already have what they need, whith lvl24+ (optimized) characters, base/platoon, PVP gear and strategy. They manage to capture all the cities/zones abuse all the early cession glitch, and hoard tons of money/loot. The other competitive teams can manage to compete with them a week later, but they will need months to acquire the same amount of wealth, because the first team was uncontested (or contested by few) for a while and because the rewards ended toned down and the glitches were reported. Then a few teams compete for a few weeks/months, while all the smaller teams, lesser teams, casuals, loners and noobs spend a huge amount of time trying to catch up with those big teams. The wipe tend to increase the imbalance between the strong and the weak and make it last several weeks/months.
Then, you mention the increase of players after a wipe, but many of those players are just wipe players. They are only interested in the post-wipe race to supremacy, then leave right afterward. They aren't interested in playing the game. They are only interested in playing the wipe. They aren't reliable enough to be considered as actual server population, and long term features shouldn't take them into account. (IMO)
Also, the dev have mentionned (i think so) that they intend to implement a progressive tech tree, with new tech appearing slowly into the cession, and getting cheaper as they become outdated. It is, IMO, much better for balance and playing low tech, as the differences between the new and old tech wouldn't be huge (if done well), as it won't be just one team that will have the same edge all the time. Instead of sending everyone in stone age at once and needing months for the lesser players to catch up, you would have only a small edge for the most competitive and that edge won't give them months of income to wipe the others for the rest of the cession.