D9 was supposed to turn best of all 190s, but in this game it doesn't seem to.
I'm against the A4/A6 pair. I've said "why" regarding the A6. A-4 is still almost 99.9999% identical to the A-5.
FYI the gas tank in the 190a8 is what destabilizes it so horribly. The CoG is too far back because of this. Historically they countered it with the ETC rack. Here that doesn't help at all (no weight to the rack!). Historically they flew with the racks even if they didn't carry anything on them! Here it doesn't even work.
My "best" lineup for the 190As would be:
190A-3 (first major combat variant, as early as it gets and still being realistic)
190a5 (can sub for an A4 as it's almost identical)
190a8 (what we've got now, but make the ETC rack permanent, and move the COG forward to reflect this!)
190a8/R-whatever (STURM unit, heavier, but heavily armored, can withstand bombers' defensive fire)
Perhaps make the last one a sturm version of the 190A-9 for naming purposes (and differentiation).
With that list you get the best early model (sorely lacking in scenarios) the best middle version (more ammo than the A-3, more power than the A-3, less ammo and power than the A-8, but less weight than the A-8, perfectly balanced mid-way between the A3 and A8), the "late" version we have now, and a "late" version highly specialized that could be seriously used in scenarios.
Take the Der Grosse Schlag scenario, for example. Historically the 190a8s were heavily armored and were able to make dead 6 attacks straight in, losing "only 1 or 2 out of the squadron" and shooting down droves of bombers. If any allied fighters sneeze at 'em they die, but against bombers they would be a terror. Instead, we're using non-specialized, UNARMORED 190a8s in this game to simulate the same thing -- guess what? They don't last half a second against the bombers they supposedly terrorized. Oh sure there's ways around it, but it's totally not a historical matchup or a recreation of what happened.
So that's why I'd like to see a sturm unit. Perk it in the MA if needed (although it'll be so heavy and slow I doubt it'll need it), but in scenarios it'd be a massive gift to all axis planners doing an ETO setup with LW vs USAF bombers.