You know, you can take "getting serious" thing outside the cockpit.
If you regard the player always being the flight leader as command's whim you can add more role-playing details.
Like forbidding the player to alter loadouts of other pilots... Maybe allow it only if they have lower rank. No more tons of Shrikes on flight two.
Or forbid fiddling with squadron list, adding more planes to the flight, deliberately picking an ace wingman etc until the player's pilot reaches a certain rank.
In can be even extended to
e.g allow their use only for the highest rank.
I bet you can balance it better to make a young pilot all sweat, and turn multiple war veterans into Airmen of the Apocalypse.