There's a very good argument for the player base to have planes balanced at lcl 1 compared to other planes at lvl. Lol 20 balance might not be something most players see for months and player retention isnt always high enough to prioritize end game play over each game experience. Some planes just feel awful from the start. You could tell me the A6 is a lol 20 monster and I'd still never bother with it. You could tell me the fishbed comes with a 10,000 gold bonus for my account and I wouldn't fly it. Unlocking a plane should never feel like you opened a jelly bean bag and picked out a rabbit turd. Some planes are like that. Some planes are also reliant on their ability to not suck. The gr3 jaguar, 106 dart and a few others come to mind, but even after that, they aren't great planes competing with the blatant overperformers.