Trader management irking some players

[DocBlazer]

I'm curious if anyone has experienced the same thing I have now come across twice:

With two different players (2p game) the situation has arisen where due to my having the Factory and decision by my opponents to limit the variety of their good production I have been able to leave the Trader with 3/4 spaces filled and just focus on Crafting (and other coin pickups) to gather coin. This has essentially handcuffed my opponent in terms of coin. To me this seems like just another tactic that made sense given those particular circumstances but I was absolutely shocked that my opponents were very irked by this. I mean, the game is literally a strategy/tactical game and so I'm at a loss as to why some would find this singular strategy to be so triggering for them. Am I missing something here?

[Jest Phulin]

Any strategy that is clearly within the rules of the game, but not within one group's idea of the spirit of the game, will irk them. For reference, look at all the posts in the Stone Age forums about the starvation strategy.