Well dividing the old MA in to three parts is not very clever if one of them will have only very limited plane setup (or nothing) to offer like EAW some ways today has. And there for lacking the participancy as well.
If I may be frank, whats described above would really be the ultimate f*ck up: Deny the numbers, divide the community and spread it into three arenas, one of which does not offer anything...
So HTC MUST have had in mind also the further adding of early war planes when they decided on this new MA setup. If nothing else, it will bring the "craappy" planes back alive, while the old MA killed them in sight.