*SPOILERS* Freedom is the right of all sentient beings...

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

But then... I suppose that if any Decepticons were coming to Earth as refugees or not wanting to partake in the war any further, then they could either defect to the Autobots (as Jetfire and Wheelie did) or declare neutrality.

*cough*Sideways*cough*

Jetfire and Wheelie's defection illustrates that it's not a 'racial' thing but, as Jetfire put it, a conscious choice to be Autobot or Decepticon.

JMO but this is why I like the determinist G1 cartoon Quintesson civilian/military hardware origin story better - as well as the potential for both 'races' to complement each other ('cons go out and gather resources through conquest, 'bots stay home and keep the planet running) and avoiding the IMO hamfisted 'divine/supernatural origin' BS, also allows for more interesting moral questions: can the 'cons be blamed for being warlike if that's their basic nature? It also means that those who do defect will have greater impact due to the comparative scarcity & going-against-their-nature bit a la BW Dinobot, and that the Autobots' conscious choice to fight becomes that much more impressive (as well as giving a logical reason for the 'cons being more powerful, since the bad guys are generally supposed to be more powerful from a story POV).

Two buildings fell down about 10 years ago and we still haven't heard the last of it... <runs>

...

I mean if Bay actually cared about the characters he was portreying...(snip).

Bwahahaha! Fun drinking game idea: every time you see a lame d**k/fart/balls/drug joke take a swig...just make sure you don't have to drive afterwards.
Seriously, how much did he and the writers get paid for this again?

Prime gestures to the fallen and helpless 'con. "Ironhide remove his spark and put it with the others." (or something to that effect, written by someone who could actually write.

Ironhide: "Aww, Prime..."

There, easy. Wouldn't take much to write it into the story, and It would actually have had Prime in character. Some simple dialogue and no whining fandom. Or alternatively they could have gone with what's in the comic and again no one would be complaining.

Even simpler solution: have Mr "we could kill the humans/I accidentally blew up a planet" Ironhide kill him, then have Prime tell him off for it. Both Prime and Ironhide are still in character, the 'bots are still shown to be badass/acting within the realities of war, and Bay gets his gratuitous death jollies. It's not like they didn't already have an established boticidal maniac to use, but noooo...Prime's not hardcore enough!

+ Acquiring land to construct this prison. I don't think the Autobots own any land on Earth - they appear to be wards of the U.S. government and I don't know if they'd be able to hold real estate in order to construct a gaol -- again, would probably involve land ownership by an Earth government who would oversee its construction (and thus gain an insight into Cybertronian technology).

A secret base in an abandoned warehouse. And they could use the bodies of their fallen foes to construct a spark-holding machine like the Prime-corpses-hide-the-Matrix or let's-harvest-dead-Jetfire bit.