We're not running custom skins atm, not because we don't like them, quite the contrary
There have been a huge amount of custom skins that are fabulous. The problem is the majority of the stuttering in MP is caused by custom skins being loaded. So just imagine having 70+ players, (several plane spawns every minute) and as you are flying around your screen freezes multiple times every single minute. It's not a whole lot of fun
I'm sure there will be some sort of fix in the future, but the smooth gameplay far outweighs having a custom skin atm.
I'm hopeful that in the future there can be a skin pack that can be assembled / downloaded etc, for the server and client, that will allow a smooth transition. Maybe it's just something in the code needing rewrote. Either way, it's not off because we don't like personal skins. Heck.., it's a shame I'm not seeing them anymore. But I'm glad we can disable them
atm.