I'll have to jump in here and somewhat support the original idea, for mainly the reasons Zyrxae mentioned.
I've experimented with the Land Cleaner items, and they do take two people working together for a fairly easy "push out of scene" effect, along the Heat Veins as described in the announcement (or a temporary lock IN the scene if the fight cause fails, I think?). The issuse becomes that outside of Torch Competitions, the "victim" can usually just click back on the arror to re-enter the scene folks want to clear, after seconds. Then, of course, our combat system means they stick around in that scene for a number of minutes (unless there are more people ready to pass the Tool to, and fight them back out).
Since the tools work anywhere, in any Land (yes, even the East, and Underground, since I know the Heat Veins are mapped there) and can be picked up in any capital without Land Loyalty (thus, "public") Anybody is free to use them against anybody.
The reasons you may perceive nadrolski wanting this done are perhaps biased, but hte fact remains there are a few discussions on forums, and in ancient chats regarding "fixing" the tools for purely logistical reasons. They work great as they are created, but have flaws in terms of what I beleive the Intended Uses are/were. They aren't really very powerful as they currently stand.
The counters to them are fairly simple. Set a defense that allows you to not lose the battles against you, Pickles/Votes/[shop?]/FriendCombat for quick AP to return to the scene, and probably others I can't think of right now.
Discounting Resources entirely, the Cleaners are more dustmap than Power-washer, currently. :P
I support the discussion to see how to improve them and re-match current MD mechanics.