I'm not really "interested" in fixing the "problem" because I feel like the problem doesn't exist
it's my opinion tho, I understand that there are people with different opinions.
However, this problem here could be easily solved by increasing the drain rate, so that players don't have to stand 10-15 minutes in one place hoping they will get gate. Talking in general, not only for eu1, it's a reason why attackers mostly just stop attacking, because the attacking doesn't give you enough action + it doesn't reward you enough considering that you invest so much time just to get 1k fame. Best example for that would be eu3 or eu4, im sure u know the situation there.
Alone the "best" drain rate at 10 (or 11 gates idk) 160 for one player and 320 for 5 players (I think), at 160 it takes 38.000/160=237,5/60=3,95 minutes to take a gate. What are u gonna do for 4 minutes other than stand in circle, if someone comes to defend the gate, u can just hope that u survive until you take the gate because 4 minutes alone is enough for at least 5 people to come. This example is also at ideal conditions, most clans have 6-7-8 gates which makes the drain rate also much slower.
At 8 gates the drain rate is 104 I think, max at 200, 38.000/104=365,38/60=6,08 minutes for one gate. That's already half phase spent just for one gate and after you take it, the clan who's gate you took has slower drain rate anyways.
as I said, core problem WOULD BE the drain rate, if it was faster it would motivate defenders to actually defend gates (most people ignore when only one person defends, 2-3 same people keep defending all the time) and attackers would give more effort to take the gate because then it depends on effort, not only on time before someone notices and comes to defend the gate.
but even with this "genius" solution, people would still complain and call it unfair, so there's nothing we can really do about it. This forum is turning into personal problems topic, not an actual thing for devs to read n reconsider. Sorry for the roman written