Well, if this game made any sense, the AvA and MA would be switched around.
What I mean, is that the AvA would be the 400 players a night swirling crazy combat-fest the MA is now, and the MA would be where folks got together and fought an elite few in a more fairplay/dueling/good fight atmosphere.
Think about it. People log on, go to LW MA, and then spend the rest of the night doing whatever it is they do for whatever reason they do it. It has no structure.
What makes more sense is for folks to log onto the AvA, where there are clearly defined (historical?) sides, and there is at least a goal to strive for. You have some sort of victory conditions that could be as simple as winning a map, but could just as easily have some sort of historical context. The fights should be inherently better because the planesets are balanced to some degree. You can have your squad and fly together in your squad plane of choice, and fight other like-minded individuals doing the same thing- but in a historically correct matchup.
The MA is where you go to furball with your friends in whatever planes give you the best "fight".
But that's not it. Instead everyone wants to fly their quake arena, while a handful of people duke it out in the historical portion of the sim; except they fly the historical AvA arena like a dueling Quake arena.
Just my opinion, and since I don't have an account, my opinion is probably worth even less than the typical whiner.
But, AvA is actually what I'm looking for. Not MA Quake. I'd have been quite happy with the MA mentality in the AvA to be perfectly honest with you. It's the popularity of the hamster wheel of the MA that I just couldn't figure out.