It's not a passive tactic. It has evolved into a passive tactic by those that think you make your pass and run away but BnZ tactics used by someone that knows to to properly execute a BnZ attack, is quite aggressive. The whole point is to use your energy and altitude advantage to maneuever and set up your target for the kill. The only way to set the target up is to be aggressive in your attacks, otherwise you give the target a chance to maneuver away or build up E to be able to meet and counter your attacks.
That's the whole point, Ack. You and I, aren't saying different things. It's just that we don't share the same term when saying "BnZ".
The two sequence of the pure "Boom" and "Zoom" essentially looks forward to minimizing the risks, rather than maximizing the chances.
It became widely recognized through the potential it holds - giving the wielder all the cards to deal. However, there is also significant importance that this tactic became essential when certain plane types, which cannot risk a committed engagement due to inferior performance, began to develop the arts to the extreme. With the "BnZ" approach, one can go for a more aggressive engagement, try some more passes, or, if all else fails, just run away.
However, you seem to describe the whole process from the beginning of the engagement to the final shoot-down, as "BnZ".
The process, the term of "BnZ" itself, cannot be in anyway described as aggressive. The aggressiveness comes only after BnZ, not with it. The aggressive intent comes from the capable pilot who runs the whole engagement, with a specific purpose to continue the attack
AFTER the BnZ, not
WITH the BnZ itself.
And the part that comes after the initial stages of BnZ, is what people call "E Fighting", and this, is "aggressive fighting." Doing boring passes again and again like seagulls diving to catch fish, is not something one would call 'aggressive'.
BnZ itself, is a passive, over-hyped tactic, being tossed and thrown as an "answer to all" - somebody asks specific questions about tactics and everybody answers "BnZ".
Well, how many times has anyone actually been shot down by a BnZ? I'm betting not that many. It takes helluva gunnery to do that, and not many people, even in the world of AH, can do that.
