Andy,
the biggest problem with these negative points is that people no longer challenging each other to become better presidents as there is no list which shows/defines being good or not. best presidents list is only used for award mechanism, you can call it award list but not the best presidents list.
When I joined this game many years ago, best presidents rank was really important as it showed who is best, who knows most and who to follow, who to learn from it was important part of the game. Today in the first places we see new players and all experienced players are at the bottom. There is no prestige to be in first places, and it is impossible as you can see.
If you need to keep this list for awards mechanism, can you then create any other list showing which presidents are really doing good? That would create some interest in competition.
You are very clever guys, please do something to fix this vacuum.