That is not reality.
What IS reality is that you can't force the nic into being and you now know that to be true. Other aspects of reality are that your side, after the nic was announced, routinely offered up such infantile gems as (you can't make this "stuff" up) "Booyooshaka!"..."It's OVER...Get used to it!", and of course "NO fences!"..."We saved you!" The unbelievable levels of childish arrogance and wholesale contempt, constantly exhibited by many of yours was (and yet is) nothing short of mind-boggling to see. How well has all or even any portion of that worked out for you?
Had the proposed C&Rs been put in place; your people could now be bidding east on their DOH, while no east people could be jumping in and displacing any of you. As it is?....The situation has provided an impenetrable fence the like of which none of you seemed capable of imagining...although you were, long ago, warned about the risk factor. No thought of ANY compromise ever came forth from the west after the nic announcement. We live with our choices...ALL of us do.