...dunno but being able to fend someones vehicles 'pew-pew' is all the more
And that's the point. To get rid of someones tank that is spamming an area is much harder than sitting itself in it and do so. That separates the good skilled players from the poor ones. Make only some pew-pew with vehicles is not the best way to win a WAR match.
DM as an exclusive way to play the game is past in-between UT and UT3. In my opinion it's much harder to handle all the vehicles well, act with the team, explore and defend Nodes
and manage some good dogfights in the meantime. Also much more interesting, isn't it?
While I agree that you can't and shouldn't label one gametype as 'better' than another, I see certain factors in TDM/duel mode that make them a lot more difficult to learn and excel at than warfare.
Up front, I must admit I am not much of a warfare player. I have played more than my fair share of tactical team games over the years, but warfare isn't really what I look for from a game like UT.
That said, winning or losing a warfare match depends mostly on the team's coordination. If the team coordinates well to carry out its objectives, they will succeed. The skill of individual players has much less of an impact on the outcome than in, say, 3v3 TDM.
When playing TDM, and in the most extreme case, duel, it is just your fragging skills and mindgames against your opponents'. Nothing else. No amount of convenient vehicle spawns or lucky positioning will save you if you miss the SB spawn. No amount of teamwork will save you if you lose track of the enemy.
You can't let down your guard, ever, or the enemy will relentlessly take advantage of it.
This very direct and unforgiving quality of 'regular' UT games is naturally less present in larger team-oriented games like Warfare. You can't keep track of ALL the opponents. You can't keep track of ALL the spawns. Completing objectives is based more on good timing and brute force (trial&error) than about outmaneuvering, outsmarting and outgunning.
I think it is this lack of backup from your teammates that makes the 'small' gametypes (TDM, 1on1) that much more challenging.