All one has to do is look at AVA and see that the no icon fan club is tiny to non existent. To think those settings will work in a time set environment when it has obviously failed in a "fly whenever you want" environment
The real truth is the AvA population was tiny to non existent before the icon change ever took place, for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is that you simply can't fly any plane from any country at any time.
The AvA will never have 100's of players, but it currently is doing OK.
It's just not true to say no icons has failed in AvA, no more than anything else has failed in AvA.
In fact, it has brought back several people who haven't flown in there for years.
If you read the AvA forum, it's pretty active. The arena, at least when I play, has a large enough population that it's easy to find a fight.
The no icons setting is working pretty well in AvA, but I never really want to see it expand into other arenas.
I for one, rather like the AvA having the monopoly on that.