Dog nailed it, lots of folks don't even engage, they just loop and roll and fly evasive as possible so they can drop their bombs and crash to do it all again. I find that extremely lame, but what do I know?
It seems with every update I have to figure out where my sight is compared to where my bullets actually go, which is a pain. I have to say I am a fan of the bullet drop because it made the game more challenging for everyone. The bullet drop on mine seems very consistent and is a fun problem to try to solve when firing at a red who is not closing head on and there is some angle I have to calculate along with speed and distance. That being said I admit it was more fun when the bullets flew straight because the bullets were consistent for everyone and more people played.
Perhaps it is the time of day, but I consistently see only 2 to 4 players logged on at times when I have time to play. Not even worth sticking around.
I guess your question was other than the community, why do we want to be here? Well depending on who is playing and the mission, the game is still relatively fun. There are some scenarios I don't even attempt anymore, like a df match, since my ww1 plane (I choose to fly only ww1) isn't a match for anyone in a ww2 plane. Also, it is rare ill fly allied due to not wanting to face jets. Somehow I find the jets more frustrating than a maxed out Spitfire, don't know if that is even real or just my perception. A 262 and Spit may perform the same, I just hate facing jets. But yeah, the game has its fun moments still. Not near as many, but they can be had. Like you Pie, I used to spend every free moment I could on this game. Not anymore sadly.