For ten plus years that I've been in the game, people have been complaining about the HO. To me it always seemed pointless because it was a tactic that was used in real air to air combat, and in WWII in the Pacific, was even recommended at times against the Japanese because our aircraft were more heavily armored and had (usually) heavier firepower.
IIRC, the complaining in AH is a holdover from Air Warrior days. In AW, the HO was set up so that (not exactly sure of the details) it was not effective - either no effect, or very little, etc. People got used to not HOing because it was ineffective. After some time of it being ineffective, when AW faded out and AH came along people who had become complacent about defending against the HO were upset because now in AH, bullets had the same effectiveness whether they came from the front or the back! So, they started complaining about HOers. As new people came into AH that had never flown in AW, they found the vets complaining about HOing as though it was wrong, or somehow uncool to do. Not knowing any better, they decided that they too wanted to be cool like the old timers, so they adopted the same look down your nose attitude at anyone who DARED take a shot from the front, and the cycle has continued to this day.
Again - it was a real tactic, and was actually used in WWII - so why complain about it being used here? I always chuckle when I see somebody type "Nice HO" or something similar in the textbox. What they are actually announcing to the whole arena is "Look everybody - I was such a dumb prettythang that I flew directly into an enemy aircraft's guns and didn't even think to move my stick or rudders to avoid it!"
