Best way to solve it (although I understand it won't be possible in this iteration of BoP, as the servers are outside the Dev's control) - is persistent rooms, with two sections for the opposing teams, so it's clear how many are on each side and what they're flying and, over time, what to do to have a balanced game. If after one game it's one sided, you're all together and can mix it up a bit to even it out.

It would also help when sorting loadouts. So many times I've played on the side of Strike that isn't full of mates, and have asked over the mic for someone to fly a bomber so that we're not outgunned (it's often two fighters and two bombers on the organised team, and everyone in a fighter on the disorganised one - so even if I go a dedicated bomber I can't out-ticket the opposition). It's even worse when both teams are randomly allocated - you can get three bombers on one side and none on the other!

Unfortunately, stat padding in strike games is by far the easiest way to unlock the B-17. Playing (and winning) 50 twenty min strike matches would take over 16 hours of solid strike matches! If the B-17 wasn't so ridiculously difficult to unlock, I think a lot less people would stat pad in strike.

Unfortunately a lot of the unlocks are tied to strike games, not just the B-17, which is a shame.

It wouldn't be hard for the CPU to auto-allocate teams, but it would have to do away with people being able to choose their team. Just add up the total payload and split it evenly. Then fighters fill in the gaps.