motherland thinks because it doesn't fit his standards...it was a dog. i guess it's a good thing the soviet pilots who were stuck with them weren't given the perogative to think the same way...it was a tool for them to use to the best of their ability.
considering the time the mig was put into service it served it's purpose...very much like the p-40b, hurricane 1, p-75, spitfire 1 and many others. a was proven by all of the countries involved prior to 1941, you don't need heavy guns to bring aircraft down...nor is turn n burn the only way to fight. the mig has all the grace of a tbm at low alt, but it was proven by the soviet pilots that it could be successful enough.
I don't know what 'my standards' are supposed to be, I'm was never a WWII fighter pilot and I've never even flown a sim which had the MiG-3. I can only tell you what I've read about the aircraft and its use and reception historically.
The MiG was only used because they needed aircraft. It, and the LaGG as well, to a lesser extent, was hated by the majority of its pilots (beside Pokryshkin, as noted, but he was also snubbed for taking a preference to American lend lease aircraft like the P-39)... they were given not-so-nice names like lacquered coffins etc..
It's not like the Spitfire MK.I, or the Hurricane MK.I, or even the I-16, which were pretty decent fighters compared to their contemporaries (the I-16 of course hailing back the whole way to the Spanish Civil War), and were phased out as better fighters came on line. The MiG was a contemporary of the LaGG-1 and the Yak-1, was much worse than either and was only used because the VVS needed everything it could get its hands on. Unlike the LaGG and the Yak, which were developed further into very successful aircraft (although the Yak did well from the beginning as previously noted), the MiG was so irredeemably awful that it was dropped altogether... even while it was in service, the VVS tried to get rid of MiGs as much as they could in favor of other types...
The MiG was literally famous for being a failure. Trying to argue that the MiG was actually a decent aircraft despite all is like trying to do the same with the BP Defiant... to a lesser extent.
There's nothing to do with my opinion here, history, the VVS, the Luftwaffe, everything you can possibly ask tells you point blank that the MiG was a terrible aircraft.
The numbers speak for themselves. ~20,000 La/GG-1/3/5/7s were built, 35,000 Yak-1/3/7/9s, but only ~3,200 MiG-1/3s.