the ladder is fine now i think. martin is doing a good job moderating it and adding en editing maps. the issue SodswSov pointed out, and has been pointed out dozen of times, should be fixed asap. one of the most annoying issues in the ladder and to me it seems like it would be an easy fix.
the ladder became a bit more inactive the last months, not sure why. pretty sure the laming and yuri is trowing alot of people off. but what can you do except for adding multi engi and giving the option to bail yuri, which wont happen.
the real question is, why are you not playing the ladder when you are always so devoted to it prep?