To the friction with the base commanders point, apparently some old heads said that once upon a time, the base commanders were 0-5s, meaning the 0-6 Wing Commander could get his way; if the base commander is an 0-6 (think current Air Base Wings), then there will definitely be issues. I can see divorcing the current Ops Wing Kings from installation commander duties having its pros and cons.
To the span of control point, the Army often has multiple Battalion commanders (0-5s), under one 0-6 Brigade Commander, anecdotally with more discipline issues than an Air Force Wing. Seems that Army Battalion commanders are trusted much more than Air Force Squadron commanders. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of issues with the Army but they get some things right.