I and a lot of people in this game started in Air Warrior many years ago. The game was strictly air to air combat with the same map day in and day out. There were no complaints that I can remember about having one map. We logged on to fly and fight with our squad mates. Air Warrior had 3 different levels of difficulty, arenas for the newer player (ya got kicked out and had to move to relaxed realism after 10K points as I remember.) Relaxed realism was no blackouts, red outs and an easy flight model. The next level was full real for those who wanted the full spectrum of combat fight simulation. Stalls, blackouts, red outs etc. There were no ground vehicles. As a matter of fact I don't recall anyone bemoaning the fact that we had no ground vehicles. The arenas were well populated. You didn't have far to go for a fight....you could if you wished to fly farther to get alt, but there were always fights. We didn't complain about graphics because it was fantastic just to have this venue to play in. Air Warrior did upgrade to 3d, and it did look better, but I don't recall anyone jumping up and down and complaining about graphics. We just wanted to fight.
Now......I did notice that when gvs entered the game that flight combat did drop. It was immediately noticeable. Nothing against the ground war from me. It's your money play as you like but I don't have my controls set up for gv'ing. It's not my cup of tea. I could care less about tanks etc. For the life of me, if I have to fly 30 miles for a fight,somewhat realistic, but spawning tanks etc. are you kidding me? If you want to drive a tank to a fight drive it don't spawn it. That is somewhat real! Spawn camping are you kidding me?
IMHO you are missing what the ground war really was. Setting up armoured ambushes, leading an assault etc. I guess it's just the newer generation instant gratification without working for it generation. This is after all Aces High. Air Combat. I fly a lot less then I did years ago. A lot less. Most reasons for those that have left,is the type of gameplay , and of course because of real life issues. Most of my old friends that have left have told me that it is gameplay. They, even though have families, would have kept their accounts but decided not to because of gameplay. They wish to pay for their entertainment not someone else's opinion of entertainment. This is just an opinion of course.
Everyone is entitled to one. No one being right or wrong. One request, if we are going to spawn tanks 20 miles away and over 30 miles of water, is it insane to ask for 25K bomber spawns? It is after all the same thing! Just kidding.