The 'only need ten because of sleeping nine hours and working eight' doesn't make sense. Are we expected to be on FOE all the time we aren't asleep or at work? Electricity to run a computer all day is expensive, and then there's meals, and spending time with the family. Not to mention it's not uncommon in the US for someone to have a commute of an hour or more each way - meaning they're stuck away from the comp for more than ten hours. It sounds like you're saying 'What, your life doesn't revolve around our game? Then you deserve to be punished!' This is supposed to be a casual game, not something you spend your every waking hour on like WoW.
It would be more reasonable to keep it at 10 if you had a mobile version. But you don't - I already tested whether I could play on my ipad. If you had a mobile version, people could check during breaks at work, etc, or any time during the day without having to boot up the computer. But without a mobile version, I feel it's only reasonable that it be moved to 12. And switching it to 12 is far easier on your programmers than getting this to work on a mobile device - even with battling/trading disabled, so all they had to worry about was research and collecting/starting producing resources.