I constantly get PW in D9, but I use it for deacking 70% of the time. A5 pretty much the same when I get ENY.
I don’t fly the 38 nearly as much as I used to, certainly would not use it to deack, it’s too big of a target against too many guns.
Every plane has its high points and flaws.
I’m just guessing, if hit squares are actually used, one for PW another for head strikes. They wouldn’t be the same size but also maybe layered. Maybe hit cubes or spheres or all 3.
I was never part of plane modeling. I just did damage model settings with what I had to work with in AW.