I use the rearm pad all the time...
In fact it HURTS your score to use the rearm pad.
kills/time is a major factor in the score-milkers, they just auger/die instantly and reup (faster that way).
I think hotpadding is fun. I once had a 1.5 hour P-40E sortie, where I found a little action, the fight went away, and flew to hotpad, flew off to another place where my squaddies were fighting, had to hotpad again (I wasn't taking full fuel) and then flew another fight there!
Hotpads are just plain fun. Especially if you're slightly damaged, but not enough to stop you from challenging yourself.
P.S. "I burn off pesky .303 rounds" <-- makes you sound more dweeby, when the point of the thread was to sound less dweeby.