It's possible to have an STV system that allows even ranking, and indeed, doing so is necessary in order to handle cases where you've got candidates you'd abstain on (in a normal system) and then candidates at the bottom of the list you'd oppose.
Why has the system made this impossible when the consultation process specifically had numerous statements that an ability to oppose candidates was viewed as needed? Especially when it's not an impossibility? As it is, if I have candidates A-H, I can rank A, B, C normally and I know H is the worst.
A fair (and possible) method would have me abstaining on D-G by giving them an equal ranking and then putting H at the bottom. As this seems written, I would need to just randomly designate rankings to D, E, F, G which is hardly something we want to encourage in an election