Yes, that happens sometimes since longtime ago, you kill them but without critical, I don’t know what is considered a critical, sometimes you get crit and they fly perfect, other times you kill them but no crit.
Not sure it matters much anymore. RP/SL reward for a vehicle used to be ‘points gained multiplied by time in vehicle’ (adjusted by vehicle multipliers) and that’s still the case in other modes. While points might have some relationship to Gaijin’s ‘useful actions,’ points won’t be capped when useful actions are.
It is bizarre that shooting down an aircraft is worth more if you did critical damage first…. Surely you did something critical if the enemy ended up crashing?
I see the latest event requires points for progress towards crates etc. One thing that definitely does not gain you any points is putting a torpedo (bomb/rocket) into a ship. You might kill most/many of the crew, leave the ship on fire and dead in the water, but ‘no points for you, bad player’ unless you actually sink it. Of course, on most maps the AA will simply delete you well before you can release any bomb or torpedo.