Agreed, the leaderboard is *not* the main issue here. Also from my perspective it reads as "Too many people are complaining about an admin being in the top spot so rather than hide him or whatever we'll just remove it entirely" which is a bad look. If an admin hadn't been in the top spot all the time and you guys still decided to remove it 'In the interest of keeping with the spirit of cooperation rather than competition' as you say it would read entirely different, but you have to admit that's not the case and so it reads I said it.
What about addressing the impossibility of getting to the elite tier even if you don't sleep? What about addressing our fears and concerns over the new tasks? Because I'm pretty sure that's what we want to see, not this.