Fair enough, on hearing players actually say the 16 ws better because it was a higher number, but I'd be more inclined to believe that was joking, or playing a prank on somebody.
If I may digress a little on the reasons the 16 "is a beast"....
I was in the air winging with some players that specialize in spit flying (71 RAF squadron, Knights) and somebody said it best after not flying the 16 in a while then taking it up for a spit16 mission. I'll paraphrase "damn! this 16 rolls like a son of a b****!" and he's right. The roll rate greatly increases manuverability. Somebody did turn tests in AH and found the spit16 was only a few feet off in turn radius compared to the spit8. Wingtips do almost nothing between the way AH has them modeled.
However, the super-human roll rate allows them to jink and break and pull manuvers that the 8/9 cannot, and as for turning -- it's nearly identical, so if you have 2 planes that flat turn the same, but 1 can roll 3x better than the other, can change its lift on a hair's notice, that one will win.
The roll rate, the turn rate equal to the other "best spits" (better than the 14, as well), and MG firepower 50% stronger than the next closest spit, it adds up. And that's only when comparing to the next closest spits! Compared to almost every other plane in the game -- fuhgeddaboudit!.
I've flown it. Hell I've flown it too much. I had to cut back (too damn easy! Was getting 7 kill sorties!). I know what it's capable of, even though I'm not the best stick.
So just saying "Oh this boost is low, these guns are a small difference" okay, fine, but you have to look at the entire package, as its modeled in AH right now.
The entire package, as its modeled right now, is the best spit in the game, the best dogfighter in the game, and the only weakness it has is top speed -- which is easily exceeded for long periods of time after very shallow dives. It's as close as you're going to get to the perfect plane, right now, and it's unperked. That's the "total package", basically.