I understand the programming of FLAGs for signal'g the Interceptors, such alternatives is rather man-made if you would. And not 'natural' if I may say so.
Using EWR and GCI Link approach gives more lively atmosphere to the mission, that's the way I prefer actually. The only trouble was not knowing how many EWRs are needed and connected to a number of CRCs and SOC(s) to form an effective network.
I know for a fact that in the Gulf War 12 years ago, USAF paid a huge effort using a KC-135 to conduct Electronic Order of Battle to figure out how the Iraqi GCI network functions. I'm trying to model or simulate something like that, just for fun of course; it's not quite possible to recreate using this game naturally.
You know the fun of playing a flight sim is not what are offered and what you've read in the manuals and get all those hands-on in-game. It's the dicoveries of features which are not documented at all, of course not bugs!:D More importantly, these features assemble real world scenarios.
Same exciting experience comes from playing Falcon 4 for 2 years and beginning to realize that increasing the Blast Radius parameters can give you a destruction power close to a tactical nuke.