We don't really even need full dark. It would be nice if HTC went back to what they used to do. It would gradually get light from total darkness. The virutal day would pass and then it would fade to complete darkness. It did not last that long, but made for some interesting times, IMO.
Take a base right before sunset and you get a few minutes to reorg and regroup before sunrise.
NOE missions get to use the darkness and semidarkness are part of their tactics.
Helped to create small natural pauses.
That said, I know the guys that don't have a lot of time to fly in the course of a day don't like night. However, if the time was kept low enough (like I said, the time to go to full darkness and the time to get light again), the impact would be minor.
All in all, I'd like to see at least some portion of night come back to the game.