I think anyone that is number 1 or in the top 10 spends quite a bit of time milking. We have all done it and it didn't take long before I realized that it was a waste of time. I really think other than maybe a few stats the score thing should be removed. It actually hurts the game in the way it dictates the style of play for many. This game for me is a form of compition and for a guy like me who can't do it on the playing field anymore enjoys what this game offers in that department. It's not just chasing number 1 it's running from fights just to keep their K to D ratio up, It's having m3's with supplies sitting behind Tigers fighting T-34's and Panzers, just so they don't lose a Tiger. I mean come on..........Play the game for fun not for ego. I find it getting harder to find guys who will fight on equal ground anymore. It's seems like people need an advantage before engaging anymore. Now that is not everyone but it is the majority of people playing this game. The new people are learning all these bad habits rather quick now from these guys. I suspect that it will one day kill this game.
There's a few errors in that.
1) A few "Stuka Nukes" on some virgin factories is all the "milking" you need to do so long as you don't "egg" anything else to mess up those stats. You can have a top 25 Bomber and Attack rank easily with 1 hour a month of this if you do some quality fightering in attack mode and get a goon capture.
2) Flying purely for K/D is the fastest way to completely and utterly "bork" your fighter rank. If you have the #1 K/D you're practically guaranteed to have the #578th+ K/T and your K/S is almost certainly going to be too poor as well. Those two sub-components (K/D & K/T) are practically mutually exclusive. You need to balance them if you want a pretty fighter rank. Dying for 5 more kills is FAR, FAR, far better for your fighter rank than getting only two more kills then running away to avoid dying to the other three and landing. Running and RTB'ing to land are extremely time consuming. So long as you have the gunnery to kill 5+ a hop on average when all goes well, you're far better off, in terms of fighter rank, killing as many as you possibly can while dying in the process for a fresh plane. You'll have at least a 5 to 1 K/D ratio even if you never live to land a single pelt all tour, that's plenty and your K/T will be incredible.
3) You don't need to spawncamp in GV's for a good vehicle rank either, getting good with AA GV's (M16, Osti, Whirble) is just as good so long as you Tank down a couple of towns or strats with HE's, do one good PT Boat rocket salvo and get a M3 capture...