There are more bombers willing to invest the time to get to alt and attach HQ than there are fighters willing to defend it.
If I am defending HQ, it takes me just 15 minutes to get to the same alt the buff has invested 1 hour to get to. All I have to do is shoot down one of his buffs before he drops and I have successfully defended the HQ. If I do not kill all the buffs and that pilot does not bail, his turnaround time is enormous compared to mine so one guy can defend against many HQ raiders.
The game does not stop when HQ is down. You can still find a fight by texting on country channel and simply asking. If you want to go offensive and grab a few buddies to hit a base, does it matter much if you don't know where your enemy is, or are you just trying to avoid a fight and sneak a base?
Maybe it's just me, but I take great satisfaction stopping that HQ raid. As has been stated here, just one buff guy can effect the entire game a lot with a HQ raid, well just one guy can effectively defend it against that single buff driver.
If you want immediate change, change the way you play the game instead of trying to change the way the game is played.
The problem is, it's gameplay that most people are not interested in significantly affecting their entire side's gameplay. Loitering over the HQ waiting for buffs that may or may not come is just not appealing to most people. Imagine if the mechanism to save the HQ was to sit in a Tiger II and camp the GV spawn into the HQ. How often would you do it?
Also, shooting down 1 of the 3 does stop that attack, but his second run you're going to have to knock down all 3 or he's going to kill it.
Thirdly, you ask on channel where the fight is, you're mostly going to get the location of the current far-too-late-to-defend vulchfest, or the location of the green horde. Honestly, that's what most people seem to be looking for anyways, but it's not what I am looking for when I look for my next place to up.
If you've been on long enough to get into position, the HQ is defensible if you're willing to put in the time and boredom. In some circumstances though, either the bandit had the right circumstances to not be noticed until he's close, or you just logged in, all you can do is watch the HQ flash until the radar goes out.
Wiley.