User blog comment:WolfgangBSC/The Random Chat Room/@comment-13740085-20160430020630/@comment-14850713-20160509164951

Harb, the hypothetical setting is 1942. As tactics are meant to minimize a plane's weaknesses and maximize its strengths, then by this time the USN has shown itself to be more capable than the IJN regardless of the individual skills of their pilots. By 1942, the kill ratio of the Wildcat vs Zero was closer to 1:1 (I hope your exclusion of the Battle of Midway was for reasons other than unfairly supporting your conclusion). And the higher attrition rate of experienced Japanese aircrews point to one thing: they flew a less survivable aircraft. The advantage of fighting lowly-trained opposing pilots was certainly enjoyed by the later Hellcat and Corsair, but not the Wildcat.

Your citing of visibility as a Zero's main advantage is quite misleading as neither the Zero's better all-around vision nor the Wildcat's narrower one were ever considered decisive strengths or weaknesses by pilots of both aircraft. But armor protection was. Thus a "bounced" Wildcat could still execute a dive to safety even with a few hits, while a "bounced" Zero would already be dead.