I prefer scenarios and planned missions, however I have a couple of suggestions that might make the syria work better. IF these have already been discussed then apologies, I havnt flown much DCS due to my computer.
1) Post up a mission brief before the night to give players specific objectives instead of letting people fly to multiple targets
2) encourage folk to work together so ask for CAP and wild weasel volunteers as well as ground pounders
One issue I might share with others is that I am still having to put in time learning the planes so might not be as effective in some missions