First off, I voted no. For similar reasons to those stated above.
But, if war income was removed for the purpose of preventing big nasty alliances from tearing into smaller ones, for the war income, I have a solution.
Please read my post in the thread alliance ranking thread.
http://www4.imperiaonline.org/forums/int/index.php?topic=3981.60It suggests a system that strongly encourages both warring, and warring against those of similar ranking to you.
I suggest that war income be re-instated, and have the value based in some fashion on the alliance points gained in the war. This would remove the difficulty of large alliances attacking weaker ones. It wouldn't allow for instances of fake wars conducted simply for the war income either, as a fake war wouldn't garner any points(must do damage to gain score, and hence income). And it would encourage wars throughout the era, both for the income, and to increase ranking(and hence income).
Thoughts?