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You take an extreme position here, Maximus, which contains truth but ignores the fact that this sword cuts both ways. If the ET does something which seemingly contradicts the games's laws, the players have every reason to worry, not just their characters. If I play a character which makes an error, that character has to pay for that error, with loss of respect among other characters or loss of social position, with banishment or punishment, with the realisations that the character did bet on the wrong mektoub, whatever. Neither the character, nor the player can undo that error. He/she can't say: that never happened, I start again from whatever point it was I made that error. The character might regain its social status again, might rehabilitate, but that time he/she strolled from the path will become part of the character's history. That, after all, is the whole point in roleplaying: to develop a real character, with all risks and only a very, very tiny safety net - if at all.

The ET, the game masters, on the other hand, have almost (almost, I say) ultimate power: they set the frame and they develop the options for the players to take. The gm has all freedom, but at the same time also has a high responsibility. If the game master bodges, if the gm errs or does something with consequences he/she don't expect and which will have a very negative, destructive effect on the game and the community, he/she is in the same position as the players - there's no way to undo it. But those who pay for it are just the players, while the gm can say for him-/herself: "Oops, better luck next time".

In a way, the collision of the Rangers/termites event and the Matis/Zorai/botanical solution is a perfect, poisonous example for that. One could argue that the introduction of the botanical alternative already was an error (and, in fact, some Rangers did, pointing out that it might weaken the position of the Rangers). On the other hand, it was clear that the French Zorai and some of the Matis were not too happy with the termites right from the start. I guess the BS (=botanical solution) plot was slowed down to make sure the termites could be developed a bit better, as obviously that was the "main plot", while the BS was an optional byway, so to say. But both ways were followed with great excitement by the players according to their tastes. Everybody was happy to have found something to chew on, although it was absolutely clear from the beginning to all players (not to their characters, of course, but to the players) that the Ranger's termites are doomed to success, for a failure would have been an enormous setback for the "newborn" Rangers community.

Then the moment came when the decision was made by a gm to allow termite experiments in Matia. In that moment, any efforts the Matis Noble players (and their characters) made were no longer worth the paper they were written on. Any participation up to that point got a stopper. For the characters in-game it said that the Karan didn't care for his Nobles; it was worse enough that he didn't consult the Nobles, but even worse that he made a contradicting decision without even telling them (or his representatives; we had four different counsellors, I think, and the Royal Herald at the various assemblies, and none of them saw a reason to prevent the moves of the Nobles, then still blessed with ignorance, as obviously all these counsellors were as unaware as the Nobles).

Now, how many possibilities does a Noble have to act from that point on? There was a Ranger player who suggested to us (not to our characters, but to us as players) a palace revolution and the subversion of the Karan, which is hardly an option for Matis. At the same time the only possible explanations were: a) the members of the High Court - at least the known counsellors and probably the Royal Herald - are corrupt (which would also have put a very bad light on the Rangers as well); b) the Karan doesn't care a bit for the opinions of his lower representatives, re. the player Nobles, and doesn't care that they get into trouble as naive and clueless, nor does he care for the international politics in New Matia as far as they are not connected to the Rangers; and c) the Karan is plain stupid and completely unaware of the consequences of his doings. All these options are no options at all. All these options are desastrous to the players of the Matis Nobles, with not the slightest possibility to change it - only to bow deeply and give a show as spineless lickspittles. The gms in that case didn't show us a way to get out of this trouble at that point, and there was no way to undo what already happened.

The option we ended up with, on which the ET, no doubt, worked very hard (and obviously became aware then of the limitations to act at that point) and which tried to save faces of both the Rangers and the Karan while trying to soothe the pretty devastated Nobles was most likely the only way to get out of a mess no player was responsible for, and the Nobles got out of it on crouches, really. And the reason for all this was a decision in the ET not thought through. It was an example where players had to eat up a soup they hadn't ordered in the first place, without the tiniest chance to send it back.

So, by getting back to what you wrote, the players were more than willing to try out things offered, but then were beaten up. Feedback was given by acts in the game (Salazar left the Chamber of Nobles and some Nobles from Avalae were already prepared to take the same step, while other players were close to leaving the game – which is an OOC act, but the worst possible case). So all consequences, all IG communication between player characters and gms at that point were destructive without any option on both sides to get to a really pleasing, smooth, “round” outcome, with the whole thing not being helpful to the Rangers and definitely bad for the Matis on every level. I do understand that no player wants to see something similar happen to his/her fraction, for while our ship did not go down, the story went pretty much over board and only by sheer luck found a floating plank to survive.