I hate the icons because they completely destroy any chance of suspension of disbelief for me. Consequently, I turn mine off frequently when playing in scenarios and in the AvA.
You are right that nobody turns them off in the MA, for the obvious reason that you could never tell who is the enemy, since you can fly any aircraft on any team! If the MA were set up as AvA, then I would probably turn my icons off quite a bit. I use a 33" screen for a monitor, and that helps enormously with doing that.
