As a guy who used to like to float around, I hated the side switch time rule nearly as much as I hated the guys on country talking about "chess piece loyalty" or spies. I would argue that your typical "side switcher" is the person who is looking for the fight, more then it is the person looking to give away the fight. In my case when I logged on, I would see who had low numbers, switch to that side, and live with it.
The challenge is, the side switch time applies to such as small number of the diminishing player base. Guys in large squads or guys who are country loyal typical either never switch, or switch as a squad in a rotation. The number of just pure furballers is low. I think a reasonable solution is to keep the present time, and add the option to burn perkies, say 25, to switch sides within that time period of the free side switch. Landing 25 perkies in a single sortie is not that big of a deal.
On the ENY question. I started just flying 30 ENY rides and higher because I dislike ENY for one, and secondly, no one is ever going to accuse you of running (lol). When the player base was huge, the effects of ENY were not as noticeable. When you have 400-500 people online, well percentages are percentages. When you have 150, the effect is much more drastic. I would argue for the deletion of the ENY balancing system. When Germany had its back against the wall in early 45' the limitations they faced were industry based, not technology based. So if you want to simulate ENY, limit fuel to cut the reach of the more powerful nation. Dunno, just thought of that one, I am sure someone has in the past...