It's great that there will be an increased degree of eye-candy.
I'm guessing the "appear where they are hit" only applies to smaller caliber fire, while the larger are being done ala FB?
I can imagine that it would be very hard making holes in the wings "where they hit" look good enough, compared to what can be done with layers of damage graphic.
I also hope that it's not just eye-candy, but that we'll get rid of the on/off damage model we have now.