Shit. If China had rockets thousands of years ago, then it's no wonder they were the leading contributor to modern rockets and space-flight!

But they weren't. Not in real-life, at least. The fact that ancient Chinese had a limited understanding of rocketry meant jack-shit in real-life and we have very few reasons to think it would be any different in the PoW world. But I am not arguing you shouldn't have shit in space. I will grant that it is plausible. What I am arguing is that, if the Chinese were able to get their shit together (which is an exceedingly more impressive feat than Europe getting its shit together after the Great War), and somehow find the know-how to advance in rocketry, space, and reverse-engineer jets, then Europe, with the likes on Von Braun still kicking, should have had the know-how to make some goddamn jets, at the very least.

I am not saying we should open up the floodgates, though. It's too late for that now. But let's stop bullshitting ourselves. And let's stop picking out the weakest, most irrelevant parts of someone's argument against the bullshit, to write up walls-of-text to try and justify the aforementioned bullshit further (like you did with your rant about resources for satellites, completely missing the point). Let's admit for a second that it's flawed as fuck to think that Europe ought to be as stunted as it is, and let's acknowledge that, at best, the stunted-world policy is our way of balancing shit. But it doesn't make sense.