Honestly, I can't see what would draw people over there anyway, except the plane graphics. I don't think that HTC has anything to worry about from that direction.
You can still play AH for free anytime you want, not just on a holiday weekend you might have been out of town for.
You are not forced into using some relaxed realism flight model (not just an option of easy takeoffs AH offers, never forces).
How many people are in the Warbirds arenas vs AH?
BTW, I would much rather support a company like HTC that runs itself and really listens to it's player base. I see constant frustration with IEN, not only from the player base, but Iceman and Hotseat also. Wild Bill seems to want to turn Warbirds into competition with all the arcade games like Fighter Ace, and has ignored the player base they already had. I see some improvements very recently (I kind of like Target), but to me it's to little, WAY too late.
my $.02