Maybe if you started with bf2 (guess that makes you a battlefield junior?
)
Vehicle/air/infantry was beautifully balanced in bf1942 and they worked extremely well with conquest mode.
Bombing with planes was difficult (but rewarding), tanks spawned slowly, had to reload but were a legitimate threat, flak cannons as AA was a MILLION times better than the shallow lock on crap from the later games.
Conquest as a whole works way better in 1942 than in the later games due to map layouts/travel speed/flag placement/class and vehicle balance all working beautifully together to fascilitate the eb and flow of the front lines.
Holding bases was meaningful beyond collecting tickets and you could effectively cut off reinforcements / breach the front line to capture and hold bases further back etc.
The flow of the game was decided by people's ability to respond in time and by coordinating by having infantry take out AA before the air support went in etc etc.
Conquest in bf3 just doesnt work.
The maps and flag locations aren't designed for it, the mobile spawnpoints and vehicle speeds arent designed for it.
It's not even just because it was ww2 themed with appropriate speeds, no lock on and no lock on AA.
Desert combat mod showed that it is possible to have good conquest mode gameplay with helicopters.
If dice didn't waste their time on a shitty singleplayer campaign and didn't cut back features so they could have a bulletpoint in the next game or DLC then maybe the conquest gameplay wouldn't suck ass.