We should start a group: Pilots Against Fencing. I'm only half-joking, because I totally agree. There is no reason for small GA airports to have this style of security. Those fences do their job, which isn't necessarily to 100% prevent access, but to be visually off-putting to discourage attempts at illicit access. Problem is, those fences also discourage LEGAL access. They discourage drop-bys and whoa-was-that-an-airport-lets-turn-around-and-go-looks and little kids getting to see airplanes up close, etc, etc.
I fly out of FRG (decidedly NOT a small GA airport, but still...), which at times feels like a federal prison. The place is simultaneously super busy and completely lifeless and sterile. The terminal is a half-abandoned dump. The flight schools are scattered around the perimeter of the field, and all the jet and charter operations are building their own brand-new, gorgeous facilities around the edge of the field also. It feels very every-man-for-himself.
I don't know the answer but I just got my license and part of me feels like I've spent a lot of money to enter a dying field. Hopefully I'll find some of those hopping fields soon and actually MEET someone in aviation, which hasn't really happened in all the 70 hours of my training.