>It requires you to either be up in attrition enough to afford the 1450m for amph fac switch + djinn or the 875 for the plate + djinn
In full lobsterpots players often command armies of 10-20k value, and reclaim awards amount to 20-30k. Spending 2k metal on an ability to switch flanks at will is a plain no-brainer, it's just there's not often comes up an urgent need to switch flank.
Simply speaking, when there are multiple Palas walking around, if you have no spare 2k metal to spend on an important asset, you have more serious problems than inability to switch flank.
>(assuming you had an ally who decided to go amphs)
Again, if you are playing lobsterpot on a Supreme Small Battlefield, and nobody in your team picked Amph, there are more problems with your team than just inability to switch flanks.
>In practice, travel time is often prohibitive and you'll be struggling to get a beach head by the time you're actually able to get a djinn in place and start sending assets. Plus now all your assets you've sent are now trapped on the other flank unless you pay another 750m.
Frankly, the problems you are describing look a bit exagerrated to me. But fair enough, don't use Djinn if you can't make it work. I certainly can, and, as evident from
mojjj post, I am not alone.
Edit: concerning time travel, there is Hercules at your service if already comparatively fast Djinn does not cut it by itself. I don't see any problem with a time of travel, taking into account general combat speeds.