It's not really just pilots, I think it would suck to be any expendable NPC who's sole existence and death is to act as a plot device which highlights how dangerous the environment is, and to make the player stranded in that environment with no option of getting back in the vehicle and going straight back home.
I've been playing a lot of Heroes Over Europe (a WW2 flight game) and it's great being a pilot, it sucks to be anything else.
In that game it sucks to be Infantry on the ground, Tank Drivers, Sailors and boat crew, Bomber Crew, Ground Observers, Fire Engine drivers, POW's, French Resistance dudes driving trucks, civilians taking refuge from the Blitz at Waterloo Station or people who live in Dover, who always seem to be getting attacked and killed with no way of fighting back or getting themselves out of their predicament, all they can do is scream on the radio and wait for you to swoop in and rescue them, by destroying whatever is attacking them.