My take-
My main problem is I play occasionally and lately play even less. I really like the game and continue to support Arcen when new expansions and new games come out (AVWW). I appreciate the high degree of professionalism and support for their products. They are to be admired for this and held out as a good example for the PC game hobby.
That said due to my other commitments it is difficult to play frequently enough to get good at the game. I more or less fumble with it and play the aspects that tend to most interest me. Consequently I have some experience, though it is lacking compared to most, with AI War. I really feel sorry for the newbie first starting out with the game and the steepness of the learning curve. This in my opinion is exacerbated by all the changes and frequent improvements made to the game. Sort of a double edged sword. Climbing that hill of learning can be very challenging and unless you like that type of challenge could put one off. Yes, there is good help here amongst the community that is friendly and thoughtful. The difficulty lies in the forums since many of the prior comments may no longer be applicable to the base game and expansions. Witness the change logs for the game if you have any doubts about what I am saying. Add to that the expansion changes and one can only presume the tactics, strategies and problems discussed in the forums are mostly applicable to the game with all or most of the expansions in play (something I hope to achieve at some point with my game play).
All said and done, I think the goodness of the game, expansions, forum and long history serve well for the existent players, but are a strong barrier to entry by new players.
I am sorry if this point has been brought up before, I'd rather play than read through all the comments and discussions.