Players standing in the spawn area no longer catch the Huttball when it is thrown, and will no longer immediately be killed for having the ball in an illegal position.

I have yet to see this and don't intend to try it, but it would imply that it is possible for a tank to simply hang out in the spawn room, hop out when deserter drops and then immediately guard leap/intercede/whatever back onto his allies in the spawn room. Meaning you could win the game without anyone ever scoring, and at the same time probably farming the enemy team as they are stuck running over burners to get near the ball.

Obviously the flaw is that you need someone to leap onto in the spawn room, but it isn't exactly hard to kill yourself in huttball. And while I don't expect anyone to sacrifice their medals doing this at 0-0, I could imagine it occurring towards the end-game with a tie or 1 point lead.

I hope I am simply misunderstanding the changes, as I would rather get flamed here than farmed on TOR. But mostly I am just wondering WHY you would take away instant death if you also made it impossible to get the ball into the spawn room without purposefully leaping into it.

The way I read the change is thus:

It is no longer possible to catch the Huttball while in the spawn zone.

Therefore a throw into the spawn zone would be akin to a throw to an empty spot, and the ball would reset.

Being in the spawn zone with the ball would still kill you.