HOing in Real life vs AH has been brought up many many times before.
The basic conclusion is:
US fighters saw the Head On shot more viable than other countries because US fighters had an average of 6 50 cal guns. US fighters carried more 50 cal than the enemy carried cannon, as well as a faster rate of fire. Therefore US fighters in a HOing position could put out a larger volume of bullets in the given time.
Against Japanese, Americans knew their planes were more durable and could take more damage, which would create more confidence in using the Head on shot.
Against German planes it wasn't as wise, Chuck Yeager found that out when he was in a HO with a 190 and lost his engine.
- In AH you start smoking you know what kind of damage you took.
- In RL the pilot saw his plane smoking and it was his best guess as to why.
- In AH we fight to the death.
- In RL you fought to live.
The controversy in AH is, when someone whines about a HO, they feel they were cheated out of a fight. My best example would be the last KOTH. My first round in was the P38J round. I made it to the final 4 without a scratch, I was coming up to 2 of the other 3 and 1 was on fire. I am confident in my capabilities in the P38 and felt I would win. I head towards the 2 planes in a shallow dive planning on passing them and reversing on them. Goldelks is on fire and in a dive, the other P38 is shooting at him still. Goldelks sees me and pulls up and HOs me removing parts preventing me from engaging in a turn fight (basically the whole point of KOTH). I have enough E that in normal MA situations I could have either landed or started to BnZ but stang then arrived with enough E to climb to the 6k ceiling. In the MA I could probably have gone higher than stang, but due to KOTH restrictions I cant. So I felt I was cheated out of being able to fight in that situation because of goldelks' (what I percieved as) cheapshot.
Then there are other people that just need an excuse as to why they were killed and accuse people of HOs, cherry picking, etc. And such people should not be taken seriously.