Score tells you who had the time, ability, and motivation to get the high score
Sometimes not even the motivation.
'Fighter mode' has been my primary bomber hunting mode like forever, and I had been at pretty much the same (and lately even declining) skill level at this.
In the beginning it gave me quite a good fighter score and rank, but only with a changing MA environment I suddenly found myself at #1 a few times. Without having changed a thing with my flying. You could almost say the environment adjusted to my flying, not the other way around
This tour my rank is a lot lower again so far. And again not because I changed anything, but because I could not find my usual targets as often.
Limit consecutive kills of the same pilot to 3 in a certain time period for kills toward score in Fighter mode.
And what's the next step?
Each time I was #1 in fighter (13 times), the huge majority of my kills had been bombers. You could easily argue that this is 'gaming the score' just like vulching, as it's an easy way to boost hit% and kill score points (I get about three times as many of them per kill than a pure furballer). And you arguably need much less dogfighting skill for that compared to fighter vs fighter combat.
So I'd suggest not scoring bomber kills either. And then the next loophole. And the next... until you get the 'right' names at the top