Even if both collide they do not necessarily suffer the same collision, so in your example his tail wheel isn't what tore you in half. It is that you collided with a major structure, wing or such, on your FE and on his FE his tail wheel clipped your aircraft.
Oh I understand how it works. Im just saying it does happen that you and someone else will collide in a way that does send you to the turf while the other guy flies off and continues to fight seemingly unscathed.
Collisions can be annoying that way. even if you know how it works.
The most annoying ones are the ones where someone climbs up MY 6 and Im the only one that gets a collision.
You can see where there might be some frustration there. Your tooling around flying straight and true, even on autopilot and suddenly you collide with someone behind you