Well, as long as you are willing to trade the "excitement of exploring" for the possibility of having "lady luck" poop on your parade and find yourself losing to someone of inferior ability because of a lopsided start, have at it.
It's supposed to be a measure of skill, not a measure of who got screwed in positioning. In my latest game (I believe), by the time the lines had been drawn, I had 7 worthless systems on my half. At the end of the game, I saw that he had only 2 worthless systems. If that had been Asmala, I would have had NO chance of a win.
:shrug: