A couple of things:
1. I think it's very reasonable and expected for TKR and Hollywood to be upset by this. The numbers were fairly even when it was Rose + Oasis Vs. Hollywood, and this gives us the CLEAR numerical advantage (even if I'm still getting killed in the whale tier). It's not whining, I think they have legit reason to be upset.
2. I do think that Hollywood set themselves up to feel vindicated about creating their bloc regardless though. Let me explain: if they win they'll say "See, this was a good idea, we rolled Rose". If they lose after other AAs come in, they can say "see, this was necessary, there are secret treaties out there"... and if they win now that multiple spheres are fighting them they could potentially have both. I'm not saying they're in the wrong for this.... if anything it's good foreign policy, but this is just an observation.
3. This dosen't really make sense. If we wanted a meat shield, why in the world would we put ourselves in the position to be hit first? That's the opposite of what a meatshield does lol. Likewise, I was asked on Morf's radio show why we didn't militarize, and it was suggested that it was because gov knew that we had allies coming in, instead of us just straight not thinking that we were the target. Even if we did have a master plan with paperless alliances, why wouldn't we militarize anyway? I got in the first attack in all three defensive wars but was overwhelmed because I had no ground forces, resulting in hundreds of millions in infra losses. Across the alliance we have to have lost billions already. Why would we intentionally walk into this?