I agree. Hotpadding a non issue.
Of course not every score obsessed pilot abuses the sortie every time. Plus I am a fan of the rearm pad. It should be kept in the game.
The plane does land and the engine is shutoff though. Are you going to tell me in real-life WWII, after a multi-hour flight pilots tended to not get out? Stretch their legs, relieve themselves... "
Hotpadding" WWII style was not like NASCAR. It took a bit more time.

My guess is that those that need to skew a sortie are in favor of rearm pad abuse, while those that would rather have more engaging and less tentative opponents the latter.
The real crux, what I am challenging you guys to reconsider, is based around
quality of fights per sortie on average.