Yeah, this has me frustrated the most. Like...WE HAVE A ROBOT FLEET/ARMY, WHY THE FUCK ARE WE DOING ANYTHING BEYOND SENDING OUR MINIONS OUT TO DO EVERYTHING FOR US!
The game had even more issues at launch when it was a P2P game, and those issues persisted up until it transitioned to F2P. F2P actually bloody saved this game from the same fate WAR was left with - being abandoned and left in maintenance mode with its sub still on for years until the license runs out and they can close it down.
Being a F2P game doesn't somehow protect them from criticism of their business model or how they continue to monetize the game.
I heard a decent explanation, in that each planet is sorta "frozen in time" and independent of all other story-related developments in the game (something not terribly uncommon in MMO's). And really, that's how it plays out. So Iokath is just the furthest along in the linear timeline that is the story of the game.
It's still an awkward solution, at least they're making an attempt to get the story back on track after its little daytime soap opera family drama excursion.