It's my fav tho, any ground type mission I'll bring A-10, and air type I'll go for F-14. F-35 is technological advanced but it's ugly, because of stealth. Actually I think all stealth planes are ugly. Personal preference.

I didn't find one but I also don't like the F-35. 8AGM just wastes ammo and the Rafale has LACM, too while getting LAAM on top of it.

Not really, it's more for fun and just there because it's such a beloved plane culturally. The A10 was brought into service in 1976, back then things like heat seeking MANPADS and accurate SAMs were much more rare so the concept of a flying heavy gun worked better.

The A10 is getting retired within the next 10 years though and being replaced with things like multirole and stealth fighters that are designed to be used with carriers and operate at further ranges. Ace Combat kind of reflects these real world changes with how good the later planes are for bombing compared to older planes.

I like the Su-34 and the F-15E the most for pure bombing missions.

It's fun for heavily congested ground missions. The cannon is very strong and fun to use vs shadow too, especially with the cannon upgrades.

Not everything has to be meta, if you like it use it.

Trigger happy.
Definitely not a meta aircraft in this game though.