It goes both ways.
There will be times when you may find yourself in a 1v1 situation. Your knowledge of E management along with ACM will get you out of a jamb. Your chances of getting killed are greater if there are other enemies nearby, as they would swoop in on you when youre low on E.
However, if youre in a situation where you are outnumbered, or have altitude advantage, good use of SA, patience, and ability to cycle through your targets as you make passes are going to pay off. You have to be able to "read" a fight and predict the enemies' next move before you swoop down to make a pass. Some would call this tactic "picking".
This can be a controversial subject when speaking of "fighter jocks" and "picktards". Assuming you know your aircraft very well, you would be confident in its flight characteristics, and therefore would likely be seeking a 1v1 engagement to try your hand out with ACM. Or you could fly smart, by maintaining an altitude advantage over other enemies and "pick" them off as they climb up to you. So what proves skill?
Regardless of what method you use, both requires skill to some degree. Some people fly big heavy planes, and prefer the "picking" method to stay alive. Then you have those people that completely resent this style of fight and prefer strict 1v1, because they feel that method is the rightful way of fighting, and proves skill.
To draw my conclusion-
It depends on the situation. Your ability to adapt to the fight will ultimately tell if youre skilled. In my personal opinion, it dont matter how you get a kill (except for hoing), only that you get a kill. In other words, a kill is a kill. There is no right or wrong. Fighting a 1v1 makes you no more skillfull than someone that knows how to BnZ.
