As a matter of basic business principals in the face of competition, either give the customer what he wants or he won't be a customer. If I were a score oriented newbie, I might want access to the best planes and as my skills improved voluntarily downgrade to more challenging aircraft. Now that the CT is open, I could care less if the MA is full of C-hogs or N1Ks
In any sport where you want a good matchup, some sort of handicap system ensures the best players have to work harder to balance the game. In football, the better teams get tougher schedules and later draft picks. Instead, the perk system ensures that the people who need the best planes don't get them. Maybe it should be inverted. For instance, if your kill to death ratio is too far above the overall average in a particular type of aircraft, the perk cost increases to discourage you from using that aircraft. But alas, any perk system will deny some customer the right to fly the plane of his choice, and you will lose any customers that are focused on a perked plane they cannot have.
Since so many customers have conflicting wants, HTC can either come up with a compromise that makes no one 100% happy (but hopefully appeals to the majority) or offer all of the requested alternatives (reducing the total numbers in any one arena and defeating the purpose of online flying).
Presently they have taken the latter choice with the introduction of the CT. Maybe there should be 3 arenas: historical, strat/score oriented, and unlimited furball. Of course you could argue that HtH fulfills the furball role. If you don't like CT or MA, save some money and keep flying HtH.
Personally, I will be found only in the CT most of the time unless I want a break from its current planeset. I also found HtH more entertaining than the MA when all 8 players were skilled and cooperated. 4 vs 4 fights or smaller is representative of the majority of actual engagements. Larger numbers are needed for the strat elements to work right, but I am not interested in the fantasy nature of the current MA strat system and would rather focus on sharpening my meager acm/gunnery skills in a historical context with a little level bombing on the side for variety.
Disagreeing with the newbie's opinion is more than acceptable, this is a discussion board. Insulting him for disagreeing with your opinion or implying that your opinion somehow counts more than his is downright wrong.
Ultimately, HTC must make a profit to exist. They must follow a profitable path just to survive (whatever that might be as defined by all of the paying customers). Of course, they don't have to follow the most profitable one. They can always choose to follow their own opinions and principles at the expense of profits.
I love AH as it is now, and from my perspective, I believe it will only keep getting better. I hope the lower price draws so many new players that HTC makes even more money than before so that they can continue to make me a happy customer. If enough people are willing to pay and play, I am sure HTC could eventually come up with enough variations on their product to make everyone that likes flight sims happy.
