[freduk]

Yes some people drop out way to fast, if you lose one battle and have no ships left in the sector, your opponent may always decide to do untactical things, like not attack your planets but just go back for resupply or have a retrofit party somewhere. Not all is lost if you loose a fleet.

But if a player quits, and someone takes over his empire a change of leadership can be very refreshing. I have taken over a game of the crushed player born2fly who was in 10th place, with two glassed homeworlds and only had 7 ships or so.
Now the empire is in 4th place with over 300 battleships, and his previous enemies have been neutralized.