I just want to use this plane in air RB. It’s such a cool plane. Why do you have to ruin it like this and make it useless - if I was smart, I’d play the fw-d9, because you get way better matches and performance. Why even have the a-5 in the game, then? Why does it exist if it’s just an all-around worse option and won’t even be put into 4.3 matches, it just gets uptiered every single match to 5.3 or, worse, 5.7.
The matchmaker only allows 4 players to have the top BR planes in each game, so you have a 75% chance of being uptiered but only a 25% chance to be the top vehicle in a game. Battle rating popularity also plays a part. If 5.0, 5.3, and 5.7 are more pupular than 4.7, 4.3, 4.0, and 3.7 then you will almost always get uptiered because the matchmaker needs more planes to matchmake those 5.7s with.
Don’t think about uptiers, just play your best.
But also, if you just cannot stand uptiers, SimEC has brackets that guarantee no uptiers. So you always have that option available.