The reason we have had all the new maps is due to the fact that most were made by Team Elite. With Team vareide leaving we had to put on someone to help compete with that of the other survival games servers. We are adding new maps mostly for that of the reason as you said competing with the hive but they are also added because the Admins and mods enjoy playing them. I do agree with your idea with the panel and think it will add a lot better quality of maps to the server but with this we have a possibility of playing many of the same maps over and over as there will be less choice in the choosing option.
~Logan