Yes, Stassy, I agree with you. Still, I remember those times when I coded cards as well and, as Harry Pitfall and others, we spent a lot of time in checking every single card before releasing our patches. But those where much easier times, where even a dummy like me could give a valid contribute by coding vanilla creatures or spells with basic effects.
Gargaroz has explained many times how "unstable" the whole game is... so I'm fully aware of this and don't get me wrong if it seems that I don't appreciate nor understand what the actual coders are doing.
About the "counters" problem, as far as I see it, the proliferation problem happens when there are tons of cards on the battlefield, so here are some hints to deal with it:
1 - give a screen with 3 options: full auto; semi-auto; manual
2 - divide the counters in 3 categories: completely useful (eg. +1/+1 counters); completely harmful (eg. -1/-1 counters); environmental (eg. +2/-1 counters; time counters and stuff that may vary from situation to situation)
3 - full-auto must be the first option in the in-game menu to allow a smoother game-play and must proliferate all useful and environmental counters on own permanents; and harmful counters on AI's permanents (and players of course). Maybe best choice even for the AI.
4 - semi-auto must proliferate only useful and harmful counters as above, then must trigger one by one each card with environmental counters to allow the player to make his choice without forgetting any. (EG, there are some cumulative upkeep cards as
Braid of Fire or
Mind Unbound that usually have positive effects and are not a penalty)
That should be an average solution, if workable, until an even better one can be coded.
Can't do more than this now. Hope to see a next fix/patch about this very soon.