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Damage is not based on a health system so you need to actually aim for a plane's critical point. If you and another plane collide, and that other plane has much stronger covering (armor/whatever) then it will survive the crash but you will not. Russian planes do this a lot.
When you are shooting at a plane, aiming at the lead indicator will usually get you hits on the fuselage wich won't kill a plane. To kill a plane faster, you have to aim a bit in front of the lead indicator for pilot, a bit to the side (or up/down if the plane is sideways) for wings, at the back for tail or different places depending where the plane's engine is (for fighters aim same as pilot, for bombers aim same as wings). Taking out any of these will quickly kill an enemy plane, much faster than hitting the fuselage.
The game is not P2W as it is still possible to upgrade your plane quickly and get new planes after some grinding, though paying does increase the speed. After a good round in one plane (for me that is 3-4 kills but some people get a lot more) you should be able to unlock at least one new component from research.
I had the same problem as you when it came to going from 1 Tier to the next. In my first ever game, I got 10 kills. For a long time after, I was lucky to even get one. I can still do well at low Tier games, but not anything in Tier 2. When you upgrade from one Tier to the next, don't immediatly put your new plane into a slot and start matchmaking again. Every plane has a battle rating that determines who you will be in a game with. The matchmaker uses the highest battle rating of a plane you have equiped (or whatever its called) so don't equip new planes until you have a few with the same, or slightly lower battle rating.
