I'll remember this the next time I post a mission... 
But yes, I love the pickup missions when they're actually prepared. They're WHAT HOOKED ME TO THE GAME! Jayro's strike missions were ALWAYS popular when I was on the knights, and people didn't mind bailing out to join... Not even a pickup mission,
he just called for a a "Strike mission! Meet West runway of A54 with your favorite ride but bring ords! 3 minutes to launch!"
I just wish there was some other way of enticing players on a country to actually JOIN a pickup mission... Spamming the country channel is an easy ticket to getting squelched... I WISH that just like the ".join" popup window, that we could get a pickup mission 2minute warning pop-up of some kind to encourage participation. 
Ive been in your missions when you called them
This is one of those things missing for todays players. You didnt HAVE to entice players to join missions, and the "spamming" was not only tolerated, it was encouraged by most. Todays player most likely couldnt figure out how to join a posted mission, follow waypoints, let alone hit the targets they were assigned. The joy of just fighting the battle is gone from most players these days.
I too think something should be done about cybro, but to be fair, nowadays everyone pretty much knows if it is cy that's flashing a base, and the few that care seem to find satisfaction in searching for him. As for your other points, the NOEs and "whole group bailing" thing are things of the past, aren't they? Not reasons then for currently declining player numbers.
....and how do you think we got to the declined numbers we are at? That type of lame game play got us here
Bomb 'n' bailers I agree suck, but we seem to have less of them now than before. Again, not a current reason for declining numbers.
We see less of everything, but Im sure that is due to the lower numbers.
And I really don't think people have left the game because players have driven m3s to town ahead of the bombs that white flagged it, do you? Not that it often happens, and I would know: I watched maps like a hawk for enemy base take attempts, and called stuff out on country when something looked suspicious.
Im sure there have been players to leave due to M3s being the last straw. As it is these days it is one little thing after another and players finally just stop logging in. Then they just cancel the subscription. After logging in 2-5 nights a week for years they find that a monthe goes by and they dont both playing the game any more than an hour or so a month.
The game has simply changed as HT tried to make it more interesting to new players, and unfortunately, some of the changes have driven existing players away. Imo none of the things you mentioned have had anything to do with that.
And that is fine, players leave. They get bored and move on the next best greats thing. The problem is HTC isnt bringing the new guys as fast as they are losing these others. Poor advertising, poor game play, poor indoctrination of new players to help them along, what ever it may be there just isnt enough new players to cover the players that are leaving.
The game has to be fun and exciting or the new guys are just not going to stay. Something has got to be done to bring that back or the slow decline will continue.
