I can see how it's easy to fall into the "nah, cheater" trap. Been there myself when getting my ass kicked early on in the old IL2 - "nah, he was speed hacking!" was what anyone would say when they got their clocks cleaned real good, instead of shutting up and inwardly self reflecting.
That isn't to say that there weren't cheaters, there absolutely were.
I dabble in the Bug with a group of guys and we had an internal DF guns only tourny, mostly what was flown was Hornets. I flew a few of them against regular bug drivers and for as childishly simple it seems to be to fly they could make the plane things that made me kill all of my energy. Frustrating? You betcha, my only real kill in the damn thing was a move I tried to follow and the guy ended up in front of me because he had all of his energy and I lost mine, which squirted him out in front by pure accident lol.....
Point is that while I agree that there is always someone looking to exploit the game to get ahead it's pretty rare. By and far it's time in the sim/game/module, experience, researching capabilities/limitations, knowledge of other's airplanes, etc, that make the fight.
~Rob