So the #s decreasing from 300 a night to 150 a night is all because of the cultural change and not do to certain gameplay changes? Apparently you haven't listened to very many squads and their reasons for leaving.... It must all be a false reality.
I've listened to enough peoples' reasons for leaving. Very little in this game has changed in gameplay since I've been here.
The main reason numbers have dropped in my lowly, non-ace player opinion is because at its peak, AH was pretty much the only thing going that offered good online multiplayer PvP in WWII aircraft. People tolerated gameplay elements they didn't like because it was the only option that was decent.
As time went on, options became available that were either F2P or one time pay, that had gameplay that more people were looking for. That's what caused a lot of the player bleed. When there's an F2P option that's "good enough" in the minds of a player, why would they subscribe to something else?
Fewer people playing at a time gradually snowballed because the Melee doesn't work unless there's critical mass in the arena.
Edit: And my point in the previous post was, your gameplay abilities lend precisely zero more credibility to your opinion than anyone else's. You're just another player. You've never built a game, you've never built a company. You've got an opinion, just like everybody else.
Wiley.