Several overshadowed planes are some of the different variants of legendary aircraft. For example when people think of a Mustang, they almost exclusively think D model, 109 the E or G models, B-17, G model, Corsair, D model. Many people forget, on the 'Fort for example, that D-F models also fought and fought well.
But still my point is that whether you think think what ever about the aircraft the earlier variants of the "perfect" version fought well and sometimes we forget about them.