Zeros had no armor to protect the pilot and did not have self-sealing fuel tanks.
Agreed but as it concerns armor to protect the pilot, I commented to another poster that I have never seen a photo of a smiling American pilot showing off the dents in the armor plate behind him.
Japanese pilots were trained to engage enemies in slow speed dogfights. Above 275 mph the Zero’s excellent handling diminished, making tight high speed turns nearly impossible.
There is no perfect airplane. All aircraft design involves tradeoffs. For the Japanese, the Zero gave them a plane that had the kind of tremendous range needed in the Pacific, a plane that could operate from carriers and a plane that could best all known fighters in 1940. The problem for the Japanese is they did not set about immediately designing a successor.
Do you really think they would have installed cockpit armor and added all that weight to the aircraft unnecessarily if it was not saving lives? Replacing a shot-down aircraft is easier than replacing an experienced pilot.