If we were fighting for our lives, everyone would HO. However we aren't, you get a new life and a shiney new plane every sortie. HO's take no real effort or skill, which is why they are looked down upon. It's a dead give away, no pun intended, that you're fighting someone with little skill or just plain desperate. If you anticipate it you can usually gain an advantage fairly quick. It's more of an annoyance than anything.
You're playing a different game than the OP and I are playing. Most people on the forums seem to be playing your game. Most people in the MA seem to be playing ours. In our game, impressing you by showing off our uber ace ACM skill is of zero importance. The problem with HOing in our game isn't that it looks bad or lacks elegance or isn't sporting, is that it's usually a high risk, low percentage shot. What the OP is (correctly) saying is that when circumstances make that untrue (a 110 vs. a Zeke) or tactical considerations make it worth the risk (you're defending a base and can just reup if you lose, the other guy will have to fly 20 miles), that practical reason not to take it, the one that matters in our game, goes away.
There are also some irrational but IMO valid reasons: I will always take ANY shot, including a HO, I get at a 262 because I hate them and they deserve to die, and because the loss of his jet and all those perks will ruin his day a lot more than losing my N1K or F6F five times in a row will ruin mine. I'd gladly ram a 262 for the same reason if it weren't well nigh impossible.
Front deflection shot, the only thing that will not result in a front deflection shot opportunity is for both planes to ram each other spinner to spinner. By that reasoning are you saying it would be ok to ho me because I broke to avoid the collision?
No, if the victim had the
opportunity to take a shot and didn't it's a HO. The front quarter shot isn't on an initial merge, or a subsequent re-merge after a long extension, it's where one pilot gets his nose around quicker and is still close enough to take the shot before the other guy possibly can, or after you've roped somebody and they're still pointed more or less up at you but they're obviously stalling and will not be able to bring guns to bear.
(Of course the first type immediately turns into a HO situation if you don't kill him with your first shot, so you'd better be sure you can. But I would still distinguish a shot that you should be able to make but is high-risk if you blow it, from a shot that is high-risk even if you execute perfectly.)
