If we just remove the pinning capabilities it still remains a "zero skill ability with no counterplay". It's just less annoying.
That is the point. There are several abilities that require zero skill to cast and have no counter, but these abilities must not be strong, otherwise they become overpowered. The best course of action here would be to just remove the ability from the game, but we know that's not going to happen.
Look at OKW sector assault. A lot of fancy arty, that doesn't actually kill anything, it's just used for the smoke. This ability must never be able to actually track units like Close the Pocket, because it would op, limited only by the fact that it only targets a sector.