From a "staying alive standpoint" lets just be honest, if you don't fly a very fast plane, and/or be very fast at all times, you will be deadmeat most of the time. In an arena such as the MA, where all different time zones and regions can fight against each other, "staying alive" is very difficult against late war super planes.
Flying mid war and early war planes in the MA is a challenge in itself. Imagine if now all these late war plane pilots really had to stay alive. There would be no point in flying harder planes because dying would end the tour.
You have to realise that A. The majority of the arena really isn't up to par with legit ACM training, pilot training, and squad tactics like in real life. Most of them haven't the slightest clue what they are actually doing.
B. Puff ack and Attacking bases would totally suck.
C. Try staying alive for an entire tour with more than 2 kill/sortie and 150 kills. It's actually much harder than you think to stay alive at all times in the MA.
I play to stay to alive in many of the special events like FSO, Combat Challenge, This day in WW2, also, in Tour Jan-2015 for a bet in a Tempest. I love when the plane matchups are on the same scale in terms of time and region. I use quick aggressivene strikes and make sure to drag opponents into 1v1 situations. At times you do have to extend away if there are more than 3 following you. If you get cought with 3 cons and you cannot out run them, it's GG 85% of the time. You really have to look around you to make sure you can make attacks or dive without a high con following. You cannot shoot at a plane too long. You have to make sure when you shoot no one is trailing your 6. It's very smart to stick with your friendlies, but if you are comfortable with defensive manuevers in a 1v1 and a high con jumps your 6, it's sometimes better to drag them out 1v1 away from the fight. Diving is your best friend. If you can kill them, it gives you time to get some alt or go rtb. If you are too aggressive you will get jumped. If you are too timid you won't get any kills.