If you have the patience to stay out of the swarm...and use classic B'nz tactics...you can beat the DR, but most folks enter the arena for relatively quick action. A knife fight in a phone booth is what the DR wants, and what lots of folks want in WWI. You are probably not going to win that fight alone in the other planes now available...maybe sometimes, and maybe even often if you have good wing mates...but, either an F2B or Dvii, using vert moves and never giving the DR co-alt...and patience, lots of patience. It's probably possible to get good enough in a camel...at the next "black belt" level of patience, to compete with DR's on your terms not theirs. You won't have the best kills per sortie or kills per hour, but the DR's are not going to be able to finish you very often without a lucky shot.
Admit I like to fly the DR from lots of years of these planes...but there are other planes that can compete. Of course that depends on the specific sim and fm...with any luck a spad 7 or 13 and perhaps an SE5a, again depending on the fm, but those should be successful alternatives should they appear.
Bottom line, stay outa the swarm...and if it is on the doorstep, maybe take off away from the base till you get alt. Suspect you know that Yeager.
Will commit to a TOD in a different plane soon...maybe the camel. Should be fun, and heck, they have a new one for you each time you loose one, such a deal!
Take care,
One