If a half cheval de frise "looks stupid", then what does a bridge made of 100 unbuilt chevaux de frise looks like? The way props were made had always been a problem, causing great imbalance in sieges. When I used to play as a sapper on 33rd siege, I could completely break a map with a few props put on the right place. You only needed 3 planks and a sandbag and you got a high ramp that could get you over a wall, or even an invisible wall. Players could spam chevaux-de-frise and build a flying bridge where there should be none. As a consequence the servers had to limit the number of buildpoints. On 33rd siege it was set to 50, which was ridiculously low for 200 players and would completely ruin the sapper experience. If it was put at a high level as it was on Minisiege, players would just build enormous ramps with stacks of unbuilt sandbags. When the unbuilt sandbags were modified and the planks removed, they would make ramps with the bugged unbuilt gabion combined with the unbuilt sandbags, and this ramp could go very high. It was ruining many maps. Something that wouldn't happen on battles.
Regarding deathmatch like Tropical paradise, trolls would also build big stacks of props that would eventually fly in the air and remain there as no one could break the props. No buildpoints would remain after the troll had made his work.
Now this problem is fixed, and sappers can still build things. They were nerfed and that's a good thing. I don't see any good reason to go back to the old props. And I believe that most players are satisfied with the new system. Of course those who liked to exploit glitches are not pleased.
Here, a compilation of the stupid stuff that could be done with the old props:
Also you can build straight sandbags walls without gaps:
That might be the difference between skill and no skill, and after less than a week of training, I guess that anyone can reach this level.