WiGE mode has bigger numbers, but air hexes are a lot bigger so that's its fastest mode, not WiGE. And 5/8 is not a thrust profile conducive to outfighting or outrunning anything airborne. Airwalk sounds good if you assume you have complete air supremacy, but if you have complete air supremacy you can use your dropships to move real mechs around and your aerospace fighters to scout.This. A theoretical Phoenix LAM may only be an 8/5/8 but that turns into 15/23 inGerwalkAirmech mode so you wind up able to outrun a Locust by a pretty fair margin while having several times its firepower. A LAM in airmech mode can outrun anything it can't outfight with ease.
Also, airmech movement is not what it used to be. You pay more MP to move if you're above treetop level, pay more to stay airborne if you ever stop moving, and pay heat. Accuracy is also terrible, but from what I've heard VTOL accuracy was also terrible when LAMs used that movement mode.
I think FASA dropped LAM support pretty much entirely with the HG lawsuit so they never had to decide what advanced tech should work in them. The LAM tech restrictions are all on Catalyst.The engine sort of makes sense, because it would be awful hard to do the transforming without borking an XL engine. The rest? :FASA: