"Jab, if you'd rise to the challenge, you'd find that regularly, early-war aircraft have a similar combination of strengths compared to their counterparts as selected late-war types have. Of course, there are differences - but that's what the challenge is about :-) "
It's not that I "can't" fly the other airplanes, it's that I have no FUN flying them. That doesn't just apply to early-war planes either; I like the FW-190D-9 about as much as I like the Spit 5 (which is to say I don't like it one bit). I haven't flown a single PERK plane because I have no interest in them, although those planes would give me advantages I can only dream about in the P-51D. The simple fact is if it isn't labeled "P-51D" then I won't have any fun at all, except maybe for the rare sortie now and then.
It's not about the "challenge" at all. Stick me in a Spit 5 versus 109F's and I'll do as well or better than I do now. I know all the planes in AH pretty well and I can fly them all competently when I want to--the fact that I fly the P-51D is because I WANT to, not because I have to in order to kill stuff (indeed, I get far fewer kills in a 51 than I would in say a N1K2 or LA7). It's about fun, and for me being forced to fly something I don't care about just isn't fun.
I never even CONSIDERED subscribing to WarBirds, as good a game as it is, because of the RPS that limits the 51D to less than 2 weeks per month. You can be dang sure I will quit AH the instant the 51D is no longer available 100% of the time. The game would no longer interest me.
But I can understand that a lot of people may well like an RPS, and so that is why I recommend opening a second arena with a monthly RPS in place. I wouldn't use it, but I'm sure a lot of others would and they deserve their fun, too.
J_A_B