I am one of the MANY off-shift working players.
On a normal patch night I get home just in time to NOT play... (between 1-2am mountain).
As has been pointed out by several previous posts, server populations are still high at midnight in the USA, and many of us are only just logging in at that time (or later). WoW does weekly maintenance at around 4am mountain on tuesday morning unless it is a major content or bug patch. No one is arguing that down time is not needed, just start later!
And for those of you posting that we should all get new jobs to support EA's schedule, grow the hell up!
Why do I (and many others) reference WoW server maintenace times? Maybe because alot of us who would like to be playing SW:TOR right now will instead be logging in to our WoW accounts for our weekly check-in... And yes, I still get routinely kicked off the servers with a 4am maintenance, but it is a hell of alot more reasonable than a 1am shutdown.
And as a matter of finance, IT geeks starting a downtime at midnight versus 3-4am are STILL 3rd/night shift either way, so it costs the same!