I'm kinda going out on a limb here but we must differentiate between roll rate and turn rate. Turn rate and roll rate are independent. Accodring to America's Hundred Thousand, the P-61 was rated last in roll rate (it was big) but ranked third in turn rate (lots of wing). Stability affects roll rate and not necessarily turn rate. Instability affects roll rate, pitch rate, and yaw rate, depending on what you want to talk about. Roll rate is important in fighter for maneuvering, the other two for maintaining aircraft control. Roll instability allows a pilot to bank quickly therefore start a turn quicker, desirable. A complaint about the P-38 was that it rolled slower than the enemy, there fore got behind in the turn. The Focke-wulf 190 was noted for being a fast roller. Turn rate is a function of wing lift vs aircraft weight.
Too much instability can make an aircraft uncontrollable by a pilot. So that's where flight computers come into play. They react faster than a pilot and therefore the aircraft can be designed to higher instability standards allowing better maneuverability and still the pilot can maintain control.