While community is one (important) aspect of online play, it is far more than that, lexx.
The AI is pretty crappy, frankly. The reason it's better to play vs people is that people are both better AND worse than AI in important ways. They have real LOS issues, so you can actually surprise them (well, if the idiotic ability to hear anything but your own motor was removed). When you get in a real fight, they are not predictable (except maybe their target-fixation).
Even a few human players mixed among the AI (coop) makes a huge difference because the automatic tendency to fly vs AI in a way you know will win becomes ineffective... we all do it offline, it becomes habit. You KNOW a shallow turn will throw off the AI, they'll waste all their ammo astern of you. Try that vs a person, lol. If you know that even ONE of the AI is not AI, but real, you cannot do that behavior.
|