Frankly, Irbis-E would help with acquiring targets, but it wouldn’t improve gameplay, especially at the cost of 2xR-77. The issue was(still is) in the FM of the missile and plane, and radar just helps you suffer less from it (marginal).
I have a feeling this is going to be sorted out across multiple patches and probably a rebalance.
“to keep people’s expectations on a realistic level rather than the automatic assumptions that are often made here that because X nation is a subtree or Y, they will automatically get everything ever used by default. It’s not always the case.”