About map size, the modding community has shown that big maps (up to 800 km large) are possible in IL-2, if only there are not many ground objects. So a map with few islands and hundreds of km of sea could have been done, and Oleg surely knew that.
I believe that if such maps weren't done, it was for playability reasons. Except for few die-hard simmers, few players would have liked a 3 hours flight to their target. Look, for some players even a 20 minute flight is "boring" if they cannot shoot at someone!
So I don't think that Oleg should be criticized about map size in PF. Sure, some important places like Rabaul, Philippines, were left out. But I think we could have had that as add-on maps, if only the greed of some US companies (that still wanted to make money from 60-70 years old projects) had not killed PF.
Maraz