Concur, to a point. However, maneuvers like the cobra are intended when being pursued (bogie at six). Go vertical, almost stop, and make your pursuer over-shoot, then drop back to horizontal and onto his six. That’s the theory anyway.
Well, that was the theory in Top Gun, (the movie, not the school). In reality nobody has to be on your tail to hit you with a missile in this era. He can be far ahead of you, far above you, or even far off to the side, and hit the pickle button. The basket he has to put that missile into today is enormous, and not the very narrow one from the early Sidewinder days
And against Arabs those maneuvers might work. But against an actual trained fighter pilot, doing the cobra maneuver and coming to a stop is pretty much suicide. You’re left hanging in the air with zero energy and he’s got his full energy state. There’s very few good outcomes to that situation for cobra maneuver man.