That’d be by design. It’s pretty disruptive to lose random planets, but being able tor reclaim them quickly would soften the blow.
As for a mid-round shuffle, do you mean the entire galaxy gets re-arranged mid-round? 
That sounds very intense.
Everybody, thanks for the feedback here. I’m going to make a decision soon, and if we go for assimilation it will happen this coming Friday at the round half-way mark.