I took the OP as a "tongue in cheek" way of saying "shut up and play the game!" as getting a bunch of players to invest 500,000 is NOT a"Modest Proposal".
I do believe that game play CAN be fixed by the players. Players have got to stop the gamey crap that ruins good game play!

While I joke with that statement it is some what true. If mission planners made their missions so that it wasn't a horde attacking a single V base it could spread the fights out and with the challenge just be more fun.
Why not make more GV missions using a couple of spawn points and ATTACK a field instead of having them all circl one spawn point to camp.
Like someone else pointed out, why don't the top sticks run the higher eny rides? More challenge for them, better chance for a newbie to go against them. Maybe they wouldn't run as much if they thought they might have a chance at winning?
If there are 2 guys on an enemy already, look for another fight! If its' 2 guys on a friendly jump in and help the poor guy.
All of these things are little things I think each player could adopt and still have fun playing the game the way they want. It could make it fun for the other players as well.
On the other hand, I'm more of a realist. I know that very few players actually look at these message boards.
All of us at the AvA are trying hard to make it a fun and Flyable place.. We have asked for ideas, No one answered. We have set up several setups we thought people would come into , No one came . We do try to make somewhat historical sets, We also try to make different sets, such as Tank night , monday night bombing raids. Last Monday we had 18 show up for a great night .
You all say that AvA is dead and should be gone, so help us out .Just pm one of the staff and give us some ideas! The arena has always been a 2 side war. We have no enemy icons and We DO accommodate a players wish by adding a plane or a night. Jaeger has done his best to make the AvA a good place to come in. You just needed to come in !!
This is one of the biggest reasons AvA has a hard time getting anything going. They "advertise" in the wrong place. Much like these guys that post about the scenarios and FSO's, posting on these boards is like hanging a sign in front of your house on a telephone pole. Not enough people see it here, so turn outs are low. This is another reason we should have better communication for.
Not everyone is on Facebook and Twitter, nor do they hang out here. The only thing EVERYONE sees is the log in screen, but that is HTC's area and they already have enough to do. In the old days we had an email news letter that that came out once a month I think. It was a couple pages and had tips for playing the game and sometimes an "interview" with one of the better known players. I think they also "advertised" scenarios in it too.
Something like that that could keep everyone "up to date" with whats available may aid in getting more people to try the scenarios, FSO, or even check out Mondays Nights in the AVA! Add in "official" hints at what is coming next in Aces High and you could most likely sell them!

I hope game play gets better, I hope there are some "tweaks" to it in the new version because pretty isn't going to bring in all that many new players. I hope players finally realize that there is a lot more to this game they have been playing and explore it and use those things a bit more. I hope they challenge themselves not only to get better for their own entertainment, but for the rest of us as well.