Flying extremely high isn't a problem, it's just incredibly inefficient in the MA. Most of the action is below 10k, what's the purpose of trying to kill the guys that have committed half an hour of climb time? It's inefficient from all perspectives. (Unless of course they are the only cons in a 50 miles radius ) You had to waste your time climbing up there, you have to deal with the aggravation of the fighters deciding to dive from 25k to the deck when they lose the fight. It's even pointless from a Win T3h War perspective. If you let a set of bombers climb to 30k, drop on a base and then rtb, that's around a 50 minute mission for the pilots. What's the point of wasting YOUR time, climbing up for 20 minutes to get up there and ending their mission early? You could easily kill three times as many planes in the time it takes for you to kill planes up at high alt. Might as well let them fly to 30k, drop and RTB, they aren't helping their side very much dropping 12,000 pounds on a base once an hour.
Oh I know I could be much more "efficient" - but I'm not playing for efficiency. Allow me to exaggerate a bit: If I would be playing for a top fighter score, I would, for my K/H is usually my "worst" factor. But even being an timid alt monkey & survivalist, my K/H is still better than that of 90% of all players... so I'm happy and do not press the issue
So I am the one that leaves the furball to follow that 25k buff driver who wrongly thought climbing for 45 minutes brought him safety
.
I am the one circling alone for 15 mins over a friendly VBase, because I suspect a minor raid coming in.
What's the point of wasting YOUR time,
Having fun. Most of the time I have tons more fun with my style than just hurling myself into the biggest horde at 3k (which I still occasionally do). Heck, I even do 60 minute-bombing runs, the pinnacle of inefficiency in Aces High!
And on a further note: I'm actually alt-tabbed out or plain afk on 80% of my flight time, doing a lot of different things - household chores, programming, doing some AH statistics...