Something changed in the balance of the perks a couple years back, bit after the server split. I had to cancel my account once or twice and lost my thousands of perks (or whatever the total was). Since then I have been really really struggling to get ANY perks back.
For example I spent twice as many hours in bombers as I did fighters last tour, and probably made all of 5 perks. You fly an hour to totally plaster a megastrat, get an entire screen full of buildings destoryed, RTB, land, and get all of 1.2 perks for your hour's work wasted.
Meanwhile you land 5 kills in a C205 and it only gives you 4 perks. How the hell do you get any perks these days? Winning the war is gone. No perks for that anymore. I honestly don't have the free time to fly 30 hours a week like I did some years back. I honestly can't. So here I sit never being able to afford more than a single B-29 drone. Here I sit never being able to take a 262 just for a fun jaunt (I used to like trying my hand with it). It's at the point if I lose a Spit14 or a CHOG I'm trying to earn back those perks for weeks.
HTC needs to make bombing strats easier and more rewarding. That would bring out some more action, right? Focus the hordes a tad, right?
EDIT: "Winning the war is gone" -- I know it still exists but it's rare to scarce. I'm never there for it, I never get any part of it, and I never seem to get any perks for it. So effectively it's dead as a means to gather perks. Just to clarify.