Give us more credit than that!
Whether it's a IX or a XVI doesn't matter, we're looking at performance. I think if the 16 were perked the new players would have the 8, which is just a tad slower and only has a good roll rate. That said, if we're going to have a perk system in place, it's a close call for the 16. I admit that, but it would be a small perk cost, I think.
My only criterion for perking is this: if it turns an average pilot into a dangerous pilot. The XIV doesn't. Maybe the F4U-4 doesn't deserve a perk price, either. The only thing it does better than the regular Corsairs is run away. 
So it really isn't the plane that should be perked, it's the pilot type?
We want to make sure that running, HO'ing, BnZ type pilots who spend their time trying to avoid the fight and land their kills, are in planes we can catch if we don't fly the latest and greatest?
I get it, when it comes to ENY. 50 guys in Spit 16s vs 1 guy in a Spit 16 isn't going to be much fun. But if the numbers are close to even, who cares. The good sticks for the most part aren't going to be in 16s, and if it gets the newer and more average sticks to stay and fight, let em all have 16s.
If I were really dying, I might care more about what the other guy flew, but in the end it's about getting people to have the confidence to enter the fight. The 16 is much more apt to get a guy to stick around then a Temp, C Hog, 262 etc. Those birds are a pain because they go fast, have big cannons and don't stick around and fight. The XIV flown the way it should be, is a bird much the same as those other go fast, shoot em and runaway types.
Worrying about the 16, is much ado about nothing. Just shoot em.