It was the best of times because people came to fight.
The only real "runner" I saw in Beta was Fishu. He sort of defined "cherrypicker" back then and he was essentially unique.
People didn't play "the way I wanted them to play" really. They played the game the way it was designed to be played, IE: AIR COMBAT.
The most of the changes to gameplay since Beta haven't been improvements IMO.
Feel free to disagree. But of course, you weren't here then, were you?