Well, the perceived 'problem' runs deeper than any one of us may think.
In the very first days of the CT there were some problems concerning what the CT actually is. Come to think of it this problem was never resolved at all.
The obvious keyword of the CT is 'history', but people had different ideas on just how much 'history' and how. The only cosensus reached was that plane sets were historic.
However, while some players wanted the CT to become thoroughly historic as in
'historically organized', other players liked the 'historic planesets' part but hated the basic mission/military structure ideas.
Many setups were tried out, some with less dar, short icons, and others tried to even things up by implementing an 'historical objective' to the CT - but none of this worked well. Since there was no structural implementation in the game itself, everything had to be voluntarily organized by the gamers themselves. And like everyone knows, this can be very hard when there are many independant fliers out there.
........
One of the most common complaints are with the PAC setups. In most cases Axis vs Allied featuring LW/RAF/USAAF/VVS setups were more or less self balanced in that the LW planes always matched the Allied planes pretty well to an extent. But even so, people like myself have suggested to create much less diversified arena in the fact that the LW has limited plane types, and having to fight the ahistoric conditions of loosely mixed USAAF/RAF planes in the same skies were frighteningly difficult for the LW pilots. What's a Fw190A-5 supposed to do in skies mixed with Spit9s and P-47s at all altitudes?
The disparity in performance is even greater in PAC setups, and only in the very early stages of war does the IJN/IJAAF fighters have any kind of clear chance in really 'fighting' the enemy on equal terms. When the era evolves past 1942, it becomes desparately hard for an Axis pilot.
The problem is, since there is no clear objective. nor any attritional limitations in plane numbers, people have no choice but to independantly go there ways and follow their instincts best fit for survival. As a result the F4Us and F6Fs naturally have no choice but to "joust", and the A6M5s and Ki-61s have no choice but to fly "altmonkey" way and fight only when they can gang up on some plane. Nobody wants to become a fodder.
Now, in real life, pilots and aircraft are organized, deployed in limited numbers with a specific objective. They also acted as a team. Deserting your own guy and leaving him to die, while you merrily watch the scene 5k above him, or just giving up the mission and running back to the base/fleet acks whenever you see somebody behind you was simply unacceptable.
As for the USN, no fleet would just send up fighters for nothing. It would have a specific objective, for instance, up a formation of Avengers or Dauntlesses to strike a certain target and damage it severely. Fighters would escort the mission. The objective for the bombers is to kill the target, and the fighters is to protect the bombers. In these conditions an F4U or F6F pilot would rarely have the leisure to do indiviudal BnZs. Sometimes they need to boldly enter a turn contest, trust the other guys, and force the Japanese to stay away from the bombers.
As much, under these conditions, the IJN pilots would have to do whatever they can to hunt down enemy bombers. They don't have the time to become the single lonley altmonkey, or just turnfight everytime, or gang up on just one guy.
The lack of some specific historic conditions, while maintaining a historic plane set, is the main problem in the CT. Another problem is some people like the CT as a miniature MA just with historic planes, while others want more than that.
Unless there's a significant systematic implementations to draw the lines of compromise somewhere, it will always have problems in whatever setups.
Sometimes, I think that the future-coming ToD mode is what the CT should have been. Maybe when ToD is to be released, there should be some of its traits implemented in normal gameplay as arena conditions, so the CT remains a loosely organized 'practice arena' for those who want the ToD, but some amount of structure is maintianed.
