I like that it's another genre fitting for the "Silent badass treated as a lethal legend by other characters", similar to Doom's Doomguy. It almost makes sense - there was such a gap in skill between the common and the best pilots in wars, it's somewhat practical to have "stories of caution about a plane with a certain decal".
The romanticism of flight, chivalry of air combat, and the sincere humanity throughout the series is what made me a fan many years ago.
Anime Sky Knights is my favorite way to describe the series. It plays almost how someone would describe a knight in a song.