Noticed with TFTD TWoTS. When you assign a person to an interceptor (one that cannot land on missions, so the equipment cannot be used), the pilot appears to take his gear with him.
Yes, this is consistent with the requirement that soldiers always take equipment with them. (it's "on them", simulating Xcom:Apoc)
(Pilots in OXCE are soldiers.)
This might be intentional, given the feature "h/ when evacuating the crew / ejecting the pilots - the soldiers are allowed to survive (depending on the modder's taste), but the items on the craft will be destroyed" (which might not make sense if this was not the case).
It is intentional, but not for the reason you mentioned.
The intention is to not make any difference between pilots boarding a transporter and pilots boarding an interceptor.
But possibly not, as this also affects the behavior which items are/can be loaded on interceptors and thus reserved or possibly lost on crash. So the alternative loadout system is not just an interface change but also a very minor behavior change.
I don't understand this... what behavior exactly is changed?
It was possible to load items on interceptors before and it is still possible now.
There's no difference between transporters and interceptors... as far as I can say.