The Japanese had a small number of extremely good pilots. They flew aircraft that were world beaters in the hands of an expert, and which would kill a novice. The A6M is not spectacular in any particular. It is slower than the Bf 109, the Spitfire can match it for maneuverability. Almost anything with US insignia was better armed and more durable. What made the Zero a legend was the men who flew it. Once they died the very nature of the aircraft and its successors meant that there was no way to quickly bring up replacements.
In contrast the Americans brought out planes like the F6F and F4U that could beat the Japanese in every category, and yet were durable enough to allow novice pilots to survive their first missions and become experienced. The average pilot in the late war US Navy and USAAC were vastly better then the men who went to war in 1941. One reason for that was the US tactic of bringing home top aces to teach recruits how to better fight their aircraft. In contrast in Japan and Germany the rule was fly till you die. It did mean that the Axis powers produce super aces like Erich Hartmann, Günther Ral and Saburo Sakai. However it also meant that those super aces were supported by a bunch of guys who didn't know how to set their trim tabs correctly. Quite literally as late in the war Robin Olds shot down one German who was crabbing sideways in his Bf 109 because of failing to reset his trim tabs after takeoff.
What you say makes sense to a degree.
I am sure that I quoted Sakai, at least roughly correctly tho.
Good observations about the US policy of bringing top pilots (often Aces), back home to teach trainees how it was in real combat (as opposed to just reading about it).
A couple comments: At the National Archives in College Park, Md., some of the military record collections, esp. those of the Navy, have what are collectively called “After Action Reports”, but more specifically are intelligence debriefings of hundreds of pilots, navigators, ship crewmen, etc. on what happened during a battle(s) and how American equipment stood up against that of the Japanese, as well as which tactics worked or didn’t work.
There is one printed/mimeographed collection of such reports which I recently looked through with a friend who is gathering them for an article/book he is working on. Among the pilots was Major Pappy Boyington.
There are other pilot reports scattered in the Army Air Force records (Record Group 18), which have similar intelligence debriefings and talks. The P-38 was held by their pilots to be the equal of the Jap Zero if the pilots knew how to fly it properly. Other American fliers loved the P-40 Flying Tiger WarHawk (The Russians loved the P-39 Aerocobra as a tank destroyer).
Then came the “Flying Tank” P-47 and later the P-51 Mustang, probably the best all around aerial combat plane in the war. British actor Christopher Lee once flew in the Royal Air Corps, flying Spitfires and then, later, American Mustangs, which he loved. (”Chistopher Lee: Tall, Dark and Gruesome”, about 1999).
Our training programs, as noted, got better by the year, esp. when the new trainees worked with seasoned combat veterans on strategy and tactics.
At the end of the war, we had the best Air Force in the world. A salute to all of them and their mechanics and armorers. They did one helluva job.