Fair enough. Now that I'm at a workstation and not phonesurfing, I'll elaborate:
Your Basics 101 article was fine.
Your 5th Edition part 1 was all right. I think the designers were correct in making Helms cost the pilot his spellcasting ability, because it took the ability of a 2nd edition spellcaster to be "magical artillery" out of the equation, giving the other classes something to do. 2nd edition had a very bad case of Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards, and this design element gave all classes an equal role in combat. However, I can understand why you missed this, if you never actually played* a 2nd edition **Spelljammer game yourself.