well obviously alot of different view points
On development, who knows if it will draw more players to a niche market. Would people who are not interested in WW2 era planes/combat become interested if only because of the prospect of getting an online title and a door prize? If it does, then what affect will it have on the MAs? Will HTC have to become a larger company....and if so, what effect will that have on all of the services they provide from customer support to in game developments? Does HT want a whole new set of headaches?
From a personal point of view, the day that HT starts offering door prizes and online titles to people is the day that I think AH jumps the shark. Moving away from a sandbox game, and into the realm of attempting to attract the masses for the bottom line. I think as a community, and assuming that this would be widely successful, do we really want many players in game who care nothing of the genre or the game itself, but only for rank/score/title/prizes? I can think of only 1 time HTC offered prizes....I won't get into how that went. Heck, I forgot who won.
Not trying to offend Kazaa, but I don't see how wanting more competition, but no added challenge is going to be possible. Usually with greater competition, the greater the challenge. In AH, as players get better, they can artificially up both by selecting different planes and by how they choose to fly in game. I honestly don't think that adding an in game ladder system is going to attract a huge player base, which (in the thread) seems like the motivation for HTC to implement this in the first place. And if it does, it will have an effect on the entire community. Also, there is always the possibility of starting up a ladder of your own. Ya it takes more more work on your end, and will be tougher to coordinate, but it is an option, especially if you are really zealous about this issue.