Hey, I liked the arena how it was in early Beta as well as it's now with the new terrain & vehicles.
I don't mind fighters at 30k - they are no threat for me. Any fighter 5k+ above me is considered harmless (but keep an eye on him

). If you stay low you have nothing to fear from those alt-monkeys. Unless in other sims vulching down on lower pray isn't that easy (speaking as a 109 driver though). I usually climb to 20k when going on a long patrol, lately trying to keep 15k when enemies in adjactant (?) sector. Only going higher when hunting strato buffs - which is a bad idea in most cases...

Putting the airbases nearer to each other won't bring the fight lower. Those who want to go high will do it anyway. Not everyone taking off from the frontline bases. The other thing is vulching. If an attacking force got a small time advantage to the defending one the field will be capped in no time. Giving the defenders only a very small time window to get their planes up. On the other hand think of the ack huggers - there will be acks (airbases have a lot of them) all over...
Leave it as it is I say. Everyone decides for himself how high he goes. Most of my fights end very low.
Kirin out