How about allowing players to respawn once in whatever vehicle they first spawn in. In effect, they get a free backup in the vehicle they first spawn in, that only works in that battle. That way everyone would at least always have the potential to respawn once. There’s already a somewhat similar system with the Israeli M-51 that can be used multiple times in a single battle because when you start the Israel tech tree, it’s the only vehicle you have access to.
They would still require the player to have enough tickets (so you probably still wouldn’t be able to 1st spawn a heli and then respawn in it unless you did well). You can’t make people use it, and there will be situations for the player where it makes little sense to respawn, but at least everyone would have the option.
It could help and I haven’t figured out any obvious downsides, other than making backups a bit less valuable. Thoughts?