Personally, I am of the opinion that <S>'s are tossed around waaaaay too freely.
Recently, I was flying an A6M2. I was fresh out of cannon rounds but still had some MG ammo. I was attempting to break free from the fight to go back to the CV and re-arm/re-up. Along came an F4F (maybe an F6F, can't recall). He was pretty intent on shooting me down and I was pretty certain I wasn't going to get away from him very easily. So... I engaged him.
The fight lasted a few minutes. He attempted to HO me at every chance. Anytime I got behind him he stick stirred like there was no tomorrow. About the time I was about out of the pebbles I had been tossing at him, he stalled a wing and augured into the water.
Few seconds later, here came a salute from him.
I chose not to return it because....
1) I thought that his conduct had been high dweebery through the fight
2) At no time had he ever really threatened me during the fight, which is sad because I'm not a very skilled pilot.
3) If I had had a few cannon rounds, he probably wouldn't have lasted for more then two turns
4) I wasn't terribly pleased with my performance either, unable to seal the deal with the MGs alone.
Nothing in the fight seemed <S> worthy to me.
Thank you very much, but I'll save my salutes for those special fights. I see no reason to toss them out to every pilot that I come across.
It means more when it is reserved for special cases.