Sorry to see ya go zyg.
For those of u thinking spit is a poor diver, stop the blah blah blah, go offline with a stopwatch and test it against whatever you want. Check initial acceleration in the dive, the control at 400 and more mph and stop telling us this is a slow plane. This plane is simply one of the fastest divers and one of the fastest vertical zoomers. Now pick up any kind of spit and climb to hi alt, check max speed and tell me how many planes are faster. Is it wrong modeled? Dont know, but its performance is a fact.... If you say most of the spits are badly flown by newbies you'll be 100% right, if you say the spit is a poor plane you are simple blinded. Even more (and you will think I'm nuts), IMO, our spitV is better plane than SpitIX.
The main problem with the planes you listed, IMO, is not their performances but their numbers in the arena. Almost 1 of every four planes in the MA is a Spit (IX or V).
In any case Zyg, AH is still far away from being an arcadish sim.
Of course, I'll be cursed by these comments just because I dont fly allied planes regulary.