Umm.....range is very important when you consider the La7 has just a tick more than 20 minutes of fuel. That's hardly enough to go a sector, fight for 10 minutes and go home. I try to land double digit kills every sortie, not really possible in ten minutes unless your an ace.
Ok, keep in mind that I don't fly Spits or Las, so I don't have as acute of a fuel problem. Still, here's my point:
Do you really fly that conservatively? Enough that 10 minutes fight time isn't enough? Most people don't. If you do, fine, then of course your comparison should weight range heavily.
It's just like guns vs manueverability. What good are big guns if you can't bring them to bear? Similarly, what good is monster fuel range if you can't bring it home?
Yes, in theory, plane comparisons SHOULD be done at equal fuel time. Still, in practice, I don't think it matters nearly as much as you're making it out to. Only if it's close should it matter: no discrepancy of weight from fuel will make a 190 out turn a Zero.
If it IS close enough to matter, you then have to consider the context. If it's a 1v1 duel, most likely neither person is going to care about cruising home and most likely the fight time won't be long enough for fuel to matter. If you are flying as you describe, trying to land double digit kills, then of course it matters, but only inasmuch as you can get the kills.
For what it's worth, you have a good comparison system for YOUR style of flying.
As for me, the 25% comparison charts are good enough, though obviously not perfect.
