Guppy you might disagree, but I'd not be so harsh as to call it "a load of crap".
I have taken a liking to the Spit14 lately, myself. I don't mind the 8/9. However the Spit16 performs as well in most areas as the 8/9, better in some areas. The only benefit the 14 has is engine power and speed (I think it's got about 50MPH over the 16??). All these late spits turn almost the same. The 14 is a little worse than its relatives, but not very much. The 16 rolls a lot better, it has the old SpitV's UFO-ness and ability to hang on its nose until doomsday, it can hover, it can flip, rotate, loop-de-loop and anything else, and it's got 50cals instead of 303s, so it's got a slightly stronger punch over the 8/9.
Top speed aside, and performance at 20k+ aside, the 16 is the best spit in the game.
I will grant you that folks in spits stay and fight, instead of taking the LA7 route and fleeing, but going by the numbers we've lost no LA7 pilots, and gained 40,000+ spit16 pilots, so it's not the same folk. The LA7 folk are still running, it's just the other folk that don't run are now in better planes. The folk that run are still here.
You can add comments such as "in the right hands" and so forth, and for the most part I will agree with you! However, the *average* pilot in a spit16 is going to beat the *average* pilot in a spit8/9.
My initial point was to differentiate that a spitfire is NOT a spitfire is NOT a spitfire. Seems folks don't care, they just want new planes. Who can blame 'em?