Take away F3 mode and watch the PS2 rejects scatter to the TA like terrifed mice. 
LOL
I do believe the H2H mode being shut down directly correlates to the transformation of the DA. Keep in mind that the DA has ALWAYS (as far as I remember) had a furball area. Nobody would use it. I would look on the DA map and see 'Furballer's Corner', and I'd think oh, what's that? I always assumed it would be for squads setting up organized 4v4's, etc. Thought it might be fun.
After H2H got shut down was when I started seeing large numbers in the DA from the server selection screen. I thought, awesome, lots of duels going on, maybe I can find a good one.
And even when I found large numbers of people over the furball lake, I had some good fights in there at first. One of the best times was probably about 6 months ago when we had everyone in the furball lake on the same vox (about 12 people) and everyone was extremely polite, asking permission to jump into fights, breaking off when opponent was bingo, etc. If I remember correctly it was Kilz who organized that orgy of politeness and fun flying. <S>!
For the next few days I would keep checking back in to the DA to see if I could find something similiar. Could never find that again. All I found were alt Tempies and 262's. Have not gone back much since.