I think it boils down to a few different types of players in the game.
You have the furballer types who just want to furball, be it for score, to make their epeens grow, whatever. Some have skills, most dont, hence furball "safety in numbers" mentality.
You have the capture the flag types that see the game as just that, which promotes a lot of shall we say "gaminess", it's all about taking bases, often times through the path of least resistance, no matter what that is, ie. sneaking bases where the enemy isnt, avoiding all fights, lancstukas, bomb and bail, you name it.
There are a few other types that are in the extreme minority( as far as i know), realists who like to fly long buff strat missions, etc, use the plane set loosely termed "as intended", and arent into lancstuka's, pork and auger, etc.
Problem is, you throw all of these together in the stew pots known as the MA's, these different playstyles are all gonna clash, and there is no way around this, enuff said. It often seems to tear the community apart, and it also has a tendancy to drive the vets away as one can only take so much of the constant bemoaning of the seperate types of players over country of each other before burnout and they leave to other games.
I think if i were hitech, i would create a furballer arena, non porkable/uncapturable bases, that tracks and scores on the ladder for fighters only. Let the first person shooter types who live for the ladder and accompaning bragging rights duke it out in there.
Ma arena's should be changed, there will be no/different fighter scoring, attack only maybe. Strat bombing should matter, base's should be hardened or different in such a way as to NOT promote the path of least resistance approach to base capturing. ENY needs to go away. Make airplane factory's for the former perked or " big" rides, amek em deep in enemy turf too. Wanna fly the big four? Better defend those factory's or your gonna find yourself driving junk. Maybe scoring should be changed in such a way to get rid of the "name in light epeen prodigys" out there that fly in the sole pursuit of how they place on the ladder at the end of every month. Make tactics and strategy more important perhaps, something to promote more of a team work kind of thing instead of what is generally seen now in the MA's. Maybe when you select a country for the tour, you have to stay as a bish/night/rook for that whole tour, you wont be allowed to switch maybe. Something to promote more of a teamwork kind of play, something to stop the players of different playstyles from bemoaning each other all the time in the game and on these boards. Obviously its an issue, look at the size of this thread, it seems to be important to a lot of people.
Way back in the day, long before even AW, there was a game called secret weapons of the luftwaffe "swotl" for short. For an old time offline game, it was pretty fun. Yah had strat targets to bomb pretty much like what really existed in WWII. Ballbearing factorys, fuel refinery, shipyards, yadda yadda. Enemy fighter AI wasnt the best, but it was fun. Maybe we need something for targets a bit different than currently exists in the MA's along these lines, that effect the arena in a different way than we have right now. I dunno.
These are just idea's off the top of my head. I do know this though. Game play in the MA's gets pretty stale, pretty fast for a lot of people, noobs and vets alike the way things are now, especially considering the split between the various playstyles and all the infighting between the various players among them.
I can only speak for myself to say, that as how things are currently, i dont see myself playing the game the way it is with most players at each others throats all the time. I play a game to relax, not get pissed off or get yelled at by another player by my choice of playstyle. I am sure i am not alone with this thought.
Something needs to change, eye candy and new plane/vehicle sets wont keep me here if the fundamental aspects of game play everyone else seems to complain about still exists.
Food for thought.
