I dont think most players like meaningful resistance.
No I suppose not. I did. The players who could outfly you were the most interesting but in dire short-supply eventually. Perhaps because of that
You have 2 options to stop a horde. 1) kill ords/barracks surrounding the bases or 2) defend with a horde.
To this day I'd have to studiously examine the Clipboard Maps to know which building was what. Never dropped a bomb from a bomber's bombsight in all this time
I tried Option 3 for ages: fight with the most-advanced ACM you could devise or discover, out-numbered or alone, before eventually leaping 600-yards in the air and tactically scattering myself over a large area while being shot from at least three, different directions simultaneously and subsequently being mocked on 200 before moving to Option 4: just log off, do something else more constructive while considering the merits of continuing your subscription.
I'm on a funny Timezone. No doubt there's more ebb and flow at other times of popularity.
Let's be honest, there really is no skill in it and the strategy to wining maps is by taking the most undefended fields.
I always viewed it as the motivation to start some fights rather than an end in itself. I find pursuing the efficiency motif a bit strange. You won the war. Congratulations, here is your reward, everything is reset in a Sisyphean / Energiser Bunny-stylee and just start again like traumatized automaton, endlessly toiling without self reflection, abstact purpose or personal-development.
On reflection, I've always been somewhat of a misfit
