What I don't understand - and maybe someone can explain it to me - is why on earth would you NOT want to make the battle as fun and grandiose and full on as possible?

Are these flights not fundraising and asking for donations from their members during the 2 years between battles? Are they not amassing a huge cache of money? I get having some rules around what to include - no KS items, not price rises for a couple of days - but then go ham. That's the fun of it. What else are you saving Dom money for? It's magic pixel money, it is there to get Dominance.

No flight member should be losing money if you've made investments in hoarded fodder to funnel into your flight for cheap during the battle. You're spending Dom Bank fake money on mercs and raffle prizes and maybe AH buying and sniping. The main Dom issue should now be preventing the absolute tsunami of fodder that overwhelms attendants on Saturday and ensuring you have a gazillion attendants on that day solely dedicated to that alone, because that's a nightmare. And that's not something Dom Bank can buy, unless you want to give IF prizes for Saturday attendants.

So why is every battle now about making it as cheap as possible?