I am pretty sure, aerodynamically, the DG is unique. :lol:
But how could you help people get better aerodynamics? Even with what is possible with Orbiter, you still need to span between "unrealistic aerodynamics with desired results" and "realistic aerodynamics with realistic results".
You have to assume that the general addon developer doesn't know much about aerodynamics, so a suite of tools need to be developed to aid creation of aerodynamics, which included a general "Orbiter aerodynamics for dummies"
There would be two advantages to this:
1.) It would raise the quality of aerodynamics. I don't expect fully realistic results, but in general Orbiter craft have too little drag and too much lift.
2.) It would unify how vessels handle given what their properties are. We currently have several vessels that are very similar, but handle wildly differently.
The Orbiter aerodynamics model is currently so simplistic that it only takes into account horizontal and vertical surfaces, but reality is so much more complicated, from V tails, to dihedrals and anhedrals...
There's also no turbulence in Orbiter and stalls are very disappointing. I've tried many times to make planes tip stall and it's very difficult or impossible. Generally the nose just drops and nothing unexpected happens. DGIV is so stable that if you cut engines after takeoff for a few seconds, but maintain pitch up along with RCS, you end up with a powered backflip low over the runway. In a realistic scenario, at high AOA the vessel would lose stability and tumble before crashing...
While at it, a stress model could be implemented as well, to estimate the stresses the vessels is experiencing. And yes, that can be done in addons... but it could be done so much better in the core when every addon could make use of it.