I would like to point out that the attacker (strike aircraft) AD-4 is overrated at 6.0 BR. The AD-4, other than an airspawn and 4x 20mm guns, does not have anything that unique to justify its BR.
Firstly you meant “Overtiered” which is flat out not, it’s neither overtiered or undertiered it’s fine as it is. Secondly that is not true either, it doesn’t excel in anything other than payload but aside from speed isn’t bad at anything else either
The plane is slow; It is in fact slower than most fighters, lower BR than it.
Performance in general isn’t the main selling point of a strike/ground attack aircraft, it’s the ground ordinance and/or weapons itself. If you want great performance or speed in your case go play a fighter aircraft that is specifically designed for it
The guns are good, but nothing special. VB 10 of 4.0 and 4.7 respectively for example, also get airspawn and similar weaponry. There are way more examples of this.
The VB 10 is a heavy fighter with no ground ordinances not a dedicated ground attack aircraft also the VB-10’s use Hispano Mk.I’s not AN Mk.2 which are closer to Hispano Mk.II 1943’s
The BR of 6.0 puts it at a fatal spot in which it can face the F-84 and other “strike” jets that also get airspawns.
The F-84B isn’t a good example since the only thing that the F-84B has going for it is the speed. Once the F-84B losses/drains all of it’s speed/energy it’s a sitting duck even against AD-4’s. Something like an F3D is a better example since it has both speed and it is also quite nimble for it’s size though that is more that Gaijin classified it as a “Strike” Aircraft despite the fact it is not irl
The only way to “play” this aircraft is to bomb bases
Not true, it’s also an effective lawn mover especially on some of the older maps such as Sicily or Zhengzhou for example where the rocket loadout plus the guns is more than enough to take most if not all the ground targets. Your job (when not base bombing or being a support/anti strike/meme fighter) is to drain the tickets of the enemy team, effectively put pressure on them. The AD-4 can also be a support fighter or Anti-Strike aircraft if there’s enemy strike aircraft.
and/or head on people with its guns
That’s true though if people keep heading on you and especially if they lose that engagement that is more skill issue on their part than a eristic benefit or flaw of the aircraft itself
Plenty of planes can do similar, such as the AU-1 at 5.7.
The only real thing that the AU-1 has over the AD-4 is the bombload and the speed. The AU-1 performance especially in DF and even in energy fighting is the worst out of all the later Corsairs (F4U-4 & F4U-7), it’s not even close. The additional armour that the AU-1 has seriously compromises the performance of the AU-1. In a 1 v 1 fight, the only real way a AU-1 can win against a AD-4 is if they have A: an energy advantage and B: the pilot in the AU-1 can keep that energy advantage, once they lose those advantages the AD-4 has no problem taking an AU-1 out even in a head-on engagement since the AU-1’s armour is designed to protect from ground fire not head on engagements
I also would point out the other attackers, such as IL-10, which has extremely poor performance but is tiered 5.0.
Refer back to the second point here. The IL-10’s performance isn’t great but it isn’t terrible either. Also the IL-10 has way worse payload than the AD-4 though i think that the first IL-10 has overall the better cannons than the AD-4. Finally like with the AD-4 the performance isn’t the point of the IL-10, it’s it’s CAS/Attack role. The IL-10 like with the AD-4 if you really want to use it as a fighter it’s either going to be a support fighter, anti-strike aircraft or a meme fighter.