I don't know Ink ... I was in a couple of fights last night in Midwar, and once engaged, and the opponent is "deathly close", I don't believe that I ever look at the "icon". My eyes are on the plane and watching it's wings.
The only time that I ever really use the icons is to determine the distance the enemy is at and it's closure rate ... + or -.
I was engaged with a P-38, P-51, La-5, and an FM2 in a fight last night. All I could do was "avoid" and every time I looked around, it was to find each plane and see how far away and if it was closing or going away and then using that information to determine how I was going to make my next move. Without that information, and under those conditions, they all pretty much look to be the same size ... to me.
When planes are between 2.0 and 1.0 away from me, they look to be the same size and the same could be said when I see planes 1.0 to 600 away from me ... and this is due to the fact that depth perception and lighting in this game is no where near what I can see in real life.
So yes I do look for the icons in these situations, not to identify, but to determine distance and closure/extension rates.
There is no way in he-double-hockey-sticks that this game could render (in detail) what we see in real life when it comes to depth perception and lighting which is key to depth perception.
I don't consider icons a crutch or unfair at all ... icons make this game enjoyably playable.