If there is no way to turn off the 5" VT-Fuzed guns with the laser rangefinders, no human gunners should be allowed on the fleets.
After all our scenario experience, there shouldn't even be a discussion.
Oedipus, the problem is that while the AI ack has all those problems you mentioned, human gunners get icons at 4000 yards, have a very precise rangefinder and a late-war proximity fuze (that only fuzes on proximity to aircraft, not to the sea -- meaning that while a torpedo plane under 25 feet might have some protection IRL, it doesn't here.
they also get a really cool ROF, and the gunners don't ever get suppressed.
In practice this means that in a scenario a skilled single 5" gunner can take out an entire squadron of torpedo planes before they even get into range (I was halfway on my way to doing this when I decided to log and give the poor bastards a shot); with two or three 5" gunners, there's no doubt (in a TOD, the 418 RCAF bravely accepted a suicide run, and, indeed, got wiped out before dropping).
The AI is bad, but the 5" guns make AAA unrealistic for our purposes. It's like giving every plane carrying the Mk108 2000 rounds, and made them "hit" the enemy aircraft when it passed within 100 feet. Anybody wan't to fly to berlin? I didn't think so.
