With the perk system as it stands it gives the skilled pilots a huge advantage because they easily can gain perkies to fly whatever perk plane they choose....leaving the unskilled at a large disadvantage not just due to lack of skill but also due to lack of comparable equipment. Also, a big assumption made by the regular BB lords is that everyone will eventually, with enough practice, reach their skill level......that viewpoint is simply not true.
If the goal is to gain and retain new players, handicapping their choice of equipment when it would be most beneficial seems odd to me.
If an equipment limiting system is necessary it would make more sense to limit the most skilled players to the worst equipment....maybe a reverse perky system is in order if there must be a system.
The perk system isn't about limiting players, it's about balancing the game. The perk system doesn't keep new players from using great planes. Many of the "best" planes in the game are free. LA7, Spit16, P47's, P51, 109's, F4U's, Brewsters (:^)) etc.
The perk system isn't perfect, but it's better than nothing.
Un-perking the plane set would really only skew the game away from the "WWII flavor" it currently has, and was built around. It wouldn't make the game any better, or any easier, or any easier on new players. A newbie in the best plane in the game (whatever that may be) is still dead against a veteran pilot, unless he stays far away, gets lucky, or has a lot of buddies to keep his opponent.
A "balanced variety" is what draws players, and retains players. There's something available for everyone, and the game "flavor" is still there.
In the past, when the "balance" or the "variety" has been reduced, the players as a whole have lost interest. I'll point out the Mid-War, AvA, WWI, and DA arenas as evidence... What are the numbers like for those arenas compared to the current Late War arenas? Which one/ones already have what it takes to draw/retain players? Which ones aren't what the majority want? Which ones are only good enough to kill a little time in once in a while?