It's certainly a much requested feature here. It's not a priority for every user though.
Noun,
With all do respect, and I know that Relic and you never said that you want COH to be like SC2 or other popular strategy esport game (I'm not sure why that's not your goal because it's good for the community and it's good for $$$ but that's another topic), but if you would remove the ladder system and observer mode from SC2, believe me, 90% of the players would be complaining. It's normal that not a lot of people are asking for this feature, because by not having it, the type of players who do want proper ladders and observe mode and other features that are lacking (up-to-date replay system) those players decided not to play or buy COH2. There is no reason right not for competitive players to be attracted by COH2, not only because of it's lack of competitive features but also because of the DLC commanders, so how can their be demand for such features.
The famous question, what came first ? the chicken or the egg ? but in this example, people need to pay in order to have the chicken and it doesn't even lay any eggs.