more realistic in some ways with the early il-2?

[Avimimus]

Maybe you got more skilled? The LaGG-3 was too light in the original Il-2 (they added a lot of weight to it part way through development)

Although, I must admit that Il-2 was in many ways more polished - the engine had been built for a study sim and the game was still something of a study sim. Things like the altitude limit, the low detail ships, the AI behaviour and the formation sizes all make perfect sense for an Il-2 sim.