In his biography, Saburo Sakai said that early in the war, the American pilots were excellent. Their planes weren’t.
As the war progressed, American planes were superior. He said the B-29 was faster than the Zero he flew early in the war.
I read that too. The advantage the Japanese had was actual combat experience. And once the Americans worked out decent tactics the tables turned dramatically. The Thatch Weave particularly. But at the time of PH the Japanese were the best Naval AF on Earth.