Hmmmm to defend my fam 'napping' a lot : I'll admit we had quite a couple naps going, sure. Then again, we were hemmed in by all 3 other fams that did real good (77, 81 and 65), so diplomacy was our only way to survive, we couldnt hope to live through attacks from 3 sides by the 3 main competitors.
Still, when i offered a nap to a fam, i proposed to make it a 10-core systems, no hard ops nap. This meant that outside the 10 systems, fighting was fair game, but it still allowed both fams to set up a basic eco in a small safe area without fear of getting nuked to bits. I actually thought up this kind of nap to allow for *some* relative safety that comes with a nap, while at the same time sticking to the HC idea of the galaxy.
I ALSO offered this type of nap to 77, but they wanted a full, no-share nap. This automatically meant we were destined to fight it out at eor as the nap was signed when the 2 fams involved were leading the rankings, and wouldnt want to jeopardize a chance to take it all by cancelling before everyone else was down and out.
All in all i think diplomacy IS an integral part of the game, HC or not. Being killed off just because you got unlucky with your position on the map would just be silly.
I think my fam did well on all fronts (eco, diplomacy, strategic planning, fighting etc.) and thus took a deserved win. Big kudos to Gard, Smaug, Galeonis, Vegeto and Walking_Corpse, you guys were awesome, and it was an honor to have been allowed to pretend to be your leader 
When speaking your mind, it is of utmost importance to keep using it !