There are a lot of different things to consider when you think about this perceived gameplay issue.
I think the bottom line is that
very few people are happy to die in the majority of their sorties. Most people like to stay alive if possible.
For a lot of veteran gamer types the ingrained negative association of dying in a computer game is hard to get away from, even if you know intellectually that having some fun fights is a more worthwhile and enjoyable use of your time.
If you fly every sortie as Redbull describes in the 2nd post of this thread, engaging indiscriminately and not trying to survive through an alt/E advantage, or not caring about the wider SA picture and letting yourself get outnumbered, even the best pilots in the game (who are a very small subset of the active game population) will die most of the time.
Very few people are happy with that kind of experience in AH - especially when you consider that most (not all...but most) of the other players do not respect this kind of play. You will get HOd, ganged mercilessly, people will run away from you when they can because they have a different objective to you.
In fact I think that posts like Redbull's, Titan's, Debrody's and those from other die hard, fight at all costs-types, show that a lot of the time they find it hard to enjoy this playstyle as well, because of the fact that 90% of other pilots will not play ball, and continue to fly by their own 'survival/score is paramount' agenda.
Personally, I like to think I take a middle of the road kind of approach...I am willing to have a proper fight with someone, but if doing so means that I will be putting myself at risk of being picked or ganged then I will BnZ/extend/run as necessary. This is just intelligent tactics to me, not cowardice.
If I engage every con I see in a 'fair' fight and ignore the wider SA picture I will die in almost every sortie - by being ganged, HO'd, or picked just when I have my opponents 6 - and I simply don't find that fun. I imagine a lot of people probably feel the same.
Some people as we all know take this to extremes and are just ridiculously timid. Just point and laugh at them and move on, because you're never going to change them.
