To be honest, I think that is HTC's intent. I believe that ultimately, HTC wants everything that had a credible representation during the war, in the game. The priorities and timeline with which they accomplish that feat is completely up to them.
I wish I agreed with you. Naturally, it's true that priorities and timelines are up to them, but a rational reconstruction of what they've done up to this point doesn't support the notion that they want
everything that had a credible representation during the war, in the game. First of all, no aircraft should ever be removed from the game if your goal is to represent as much as possible, nor should they have loadouts removed that were used in combat. However, the Spitfire V had 120 rpg for its 20mm cannon, but was downgraded to an earlier version with only 60 rpg. I don't even wanna get into the arguments over the 109G-10, but it's clear the 109G-6 suffered a fate similar to the Spit V. If HTC's goal were as you say, then both loadouts would have remained in the game, and the ENY system would take care of the rest. Secondly, you wouldn't add aircraft like the Ta-152. As cool as I think it is, adding it in front of other aircraft that were produced in larger numbers and which saw more combat is backwards, e.g. J2M, Ki-43, 109G-6/AS, Do-217, G4M, 190A-3, Yak-9D, I-16, Pe-2, Yak-1, A6M3...the list goes on and on.
The pattern of behavior I see is this: Start with popular, late war aircraft that make for a playable main arena. 2/3 of new additions will also be popular, mid/late war rides that can compete in the main arena, and 1/3 of new additions will be less competitive rides that work well for scenarios (this strategy will require dubious substitutions and the near absence of entire theaters of war). Once the bare minimum in aircraft diversity has been met, focus on other stuff like ground vehicles and pipe dreams like combat tour.
Fwiw, I agree with step 1, starting with popular, late war aircraft that make for a playable main arena. It's all the subsequent steps that I disagree with. Once you get a fun arena going, it's time to start adding aircraft that complete scenario planesets, e.g. don't stop with the Ju88 and say it's good enough for the BoB. Then you might move on to Africa and say, hmmmm... The 109F-4 isn't enough, we'll also need a 109E-7 and a 109F-2...and so on. That's how you would go about adding
everything that had a credible representation during the war, in the game.