I’d also like to point out that this situation is different from ground vehicles, where there are many more options available. The same logic cannot be applied here because the selection of suitable aircraft is much more limited.
For these nations, the available options are already quite restricted, and the aircraft listed are some of the most interesting and realistic choices currently available.
Copy paste premiums can actually be a good thing, especially at the higher tiers. They give Gaijin the opportunity to add unique and interesting aircraft to the tech trees without having to create an entirely new aircraft behind a paywall which would be incredibly unpopular, they should’ve added a Saudi F-15C instead of the highly anticipated F-14D.
Some of the options you suggested for Italy and Israel don’t make much sense to me, particularly when you consider what those nations already have. Israel, for example, already has the event Kfir C.10, so adding another similar aircraft wouldn’t be particularly interesting and would make people who worked hard for the Kfir C.10 very upset. The Italian options are also fairly uninspired and, in my opinion, wouldn’t sell particularly well. The F-104 ASA-M is a good example. The Italian F-104s already have a poor reputation among players, and the ASA-M would still be another aircraft without Fox-3 capability. It would therefore offer only a relatively minor improvement over the existing F-104S TAF rather than giving Italy a genuinely interesting top-tier premium. The ASA-M was an avionics upgrade to the ASA, but it wasn’t an AMRAAM-equipped variant.
This is also why I think more F-16 variants would be perfectly reasonable. There is currently only one Fox 3 capable premium F-16 at the higher tiers, and different blocks operated by different countries could offer their own unique camouflage, history and slight loadout differences while still being based on a familiar airframe.
At the higher tiers, though, the number of suitable aircraft naturally becomes more limited. I’ve tried to take that into account when making these suggestions with the help of others, which is also why I didn’t include the Brazilian Gripen. In my opinion, Sweden should be the nation to receive a top tier Gripen premium rather than Italy.
Ultimately, there aren’t an unlimited number of aircraft that can realistically fill these roles. I’d rather see a well chosen copy paste aircraft that makes sense for the nation than a more unique but poorly suited option that nobody is interested in playing or buying, or a completely new aircraft like the F-14D.
