Unfair? No, I honestly did not, my appologies if it came out as somehow offensive 
You said you thought you proved “it would not mess up ranks”, and I merely pointed out what data I still felt lacking in the proof in the hopes that someone capable of doing such a simulation would repeat it including for those eventualities.
And since I have serious concerns that we are bound to repeat the same arguments over and over, let me try to summarize the whole thread in simple points:
The concerns are:
The rule can/is be misused for cheating:
While potentially it clearly could, I personally think there is no evidence of this being currently any major issue (also with much easier and avilable ways to cheat avilable), thus I personally do not find that to be in urgent need of any rushed fix.
It is unfair
Because in those cases where you are winning you do not get the points. That is obviously true. But in those cases where you were losing you do not lose any points, so it might be partially negated.
(are there any more not connected with these? let me know I will add them)
If the rule was canceled:
rank problemsIn case of multiple innocent timeouts the rank of the timeouter gets misrepresented. Which is (in my opinion unnecessary bother for the player, since it does not make it fair for others anyway) but more importantly against the very purpose of ranking.
it is still unfair
While less annoying, games are still being scored wrongly in the other direction, and if the player comes back he/she will be unintentionally “sandbagging” which too is super annoying and unfair to play an “eqal” game against 5stones stronger player. And while the annullments simply “do not matter” these games WILL count towards your rank.
might mess with ranking further
Truth or not it has been raised as a concern and AFAI am concerned not disproved, thus it remains a potential worry.
My completely personal opinion is that canceling the rule hence brings no major solution to the concernes raised and with the added worry of other problems makes no sense (to me) to have it removed. I do not think players’ ranks suffer any substantial misrepresentation because of a few uncounted (not misscored) games. But it is of course up to discussion if you feel otherwise.
Sugested other solutions:
1. Allowing the winner of such games to determine how it is counted
maybe I am a sceptic but I just feel most players would take the win without really thinking about it (not out of spite, I don’t blame them, we click without reading all the time, or they would feel it deserved since the other player did not “fulfill” the contract).
2. Removing the ‘Recently Timed-out’ flag from accounts as soon as they log back in.
This seems to only solve the cheating problem which as far as I am concerned does not seem to be too big a deal.
3. Automatically triggering Vacation for people who start a string of TO’s.
This is probably my absolute favorite, making it hard to cheat, while being helpfull to people with unexcpected events that still want to play. Can anyone think of any potential problems with it?
Personally, I am happy to try and press the auto-vacation a little if you feel like it would help resolve your problems, but it will still on itself not resolve the case with people who stop playing altogether.
To adress some minor comments with the same idea:
- it is their problem/ they deserve the rank drop, etc.
I disagree. The ranking system is NOT means to punish people, it is to try and represent their strength, nothing else.
I urge you again, try to stay stricly on topic and away from personal potshots at this one. You are only runing the chances of some resolution otherwise. And without wanting to sound rude, I will from now on become much less active in this thread as it is taking too much of my time and I feel like we are still largely in the “emotions” rather than “ideas” territory. If you feel like you have something new/important to present, please take the time to tag me, I will try to have a look/answer when I have the time. Thank you and sorry for the long text.