I agree.
Probably the only thing that would not be foul play would be a bug.

However, it's technically not foul play. Sacer has been on the record before that the incubation process gives the opportunity for the imms to modify your base. The example referring to raising your base for exceptional roleplay etc.

Naturally stands to reason they will lower it too.

Otherwise, what's the point of a 3 day incubation if not for this purpose?

So I don't take issue they can change your base, I just take issue that my base got set to 3 when I essentially ran my last 2 empire chars with the best roleplay that I can achieve. And actively avoided pissing people off by not full looting and not multi-killing weaker opponents.