Cockpit Colin wrote:

Newby question here - I've always been curious as to why any aircraft in the
1 to 1 thrust to weight ratio class (F/A-18? F4? F14? etc) would have
trouble being able to "simply" power out flat spins / falling leafs etc.

Can anyone give me a bit on an insight?

One way to think of it (not too scientific) is that adding power just
adds more "juice" to the spin. The power vector rotates around, just
making the plane do whatever it's doing with that much more vigor.