That seems to have been an executive decision, that people were going to keep adding fictional characters anyway, so they might as well be allowed to have their own trees to play with and their own projects to discuss them on.
It's just a matter of making sure they don't get linked to the Big Tree, and kicking them off promptly if someone does that.
What is more problematic is all the misinformation and disinformation that keeps being added in from "legitimate" sources (that aren't as well researched as they should be).