Interesting… That’s not been my experience, but maybe that’s cos I play a lot slower than you.
Yes, it can get a bit Long Warish at times - but I love the LWs, so I don’t really mind. So I have 2 teams - the A Team in a Tiamat with a Scarab (until it was destroyed and I just bought an Armadillo), whose job it is to take on the static non-time sensitive missions, because the Tiamat is slow. Then the B Team zips around the map in the Manticore, running Haven Defenc against Pandorans (I leave the Factions to duke it out between themselves, unless one of them picks on a Haven that’s too close to home).
That leaves me with my hands pretty full, so I’m working on the resources to build a third aircraft and send a Stealth Team out to investigate the long-distance Phoenix Story Missions.
All this makes for a very absorbing game - albeit a tad repetitive at times (‘Oh no, not another Haven Defence!’). But then, I like the Long Wars, so I don’t mind repetitive as long as it plays to the theme.