The higher you go in a Spit 14 the better it gets. However i agree with you it shouldn't be perked with the way the game is played now.
It used to be with the low number of players that you'd take off and climb anywhere from 2 to 3 sectors to find a fight, thus getting tons of altitude. The Spit 14 is one of just a few that really rocks way up high and when they introduced it to the game everyone started to fly it. Kind of like the Spit 16 now.
With the larger numbers of players now and the trend to low level fighting, 16k or lower, the Spit 14 wouldn't be my first choice now days. I'd take a Spit 8 or 16 now before i'd even think about taking a 14.