The goal of this process is supposed to be to apportion the divisions in a way that leads to more fun and debate while also keeping the apportionment as fair as possible. That is the basis on which I voted for it. I don't see any reason why the defending champ should get an extra benefit out of the process - what is the rationale for thinking the champ NEEDS more of a benefit? That person just won a championship and two free teams, we don't need to let them handpick their division too. If all the teams in the middle are the same and hard to tell apart anyway (which I somewhat agree with) then vance shouldn't care so much about picking first in every round anyway. In every draft process there are a couple teams that everyone agrees look awful (see the first three picks here, which I had ranked as the three worst teams) and a couple teams everyone wants to avoid. In a five-round snake draft, the defending champ gets guaranteed the team he thinks is the worst (which is generally pretty clear) AND also picks first in the last round, meaning he basically gets to pick the three teams he most wants to avoid. That is already a significant advantage WITHOUT giving him the first pick in the other rounds, too.
If the only reason for giving that advantage is because the person who benefits most from it this year lobbied for it, without providing any rationale beyond wanting to do it that way, that's not good enough for me. That is a terrible reason to do it that way, and unless someone can come up with a much better reason for it I will continue to lodge my protest (for all the good that will do). I think the fairest way to do it would be to go ABBAB, or ABABB (A being a 1-4 order round, B being a 4-1 ordered round) but I'll settle at least for a normal snake, which still gives a significant advantage to the guy picking first.