Hence the disclaimer ceteris parabis. We don't know the context of the 052D and Burke's radars so we shouldn't be too hasty in our convictions. Like I said, I'd personally wager on the 052D's superiority but I won't export that inclination to someone else because I don't have a single shred of evidence for it. If Iron Man wishes to hold reservations on the 052D's capabilities vis a vis the Burke, it's a completely valid position as of this moment, in the absence of any evidence to support or dissuade his choice.
I feel like this discussion about AESA vs PESA in context of 052D's radar/sensor capability has not addressed the core issue, which is related to assumptions about "other factors".
Iron Man is obviously right in saying that the real world performance of an AESA and PESA is dependent on a whole host of "other factors" that has been listed and which I won't repeat here (but software etc being one of the common ones listed), where one system may have superior "other factors" which allow the performance of one type of radar to be superior to the other type. Obviously assuming just because a radar is an AESA doesn't mean it is automatically superior to a PESA if the latter has superior "other factors" like software, or even array size or whatever.
But I think what the "AESA > PESA in every condition" crowd are trying to say, is that holding all of those "other factors" to be equal, then AESA should be superior to PESA every time.
So I think in the context of 052D, I think what people are arguing about is really about how the 052D compares with other ships (like the Burke/SPY-1 as repeatedly brought up) in terms of those "other factors," rather than AESA vs PESA itself.
That is to say, the way I've read the last few pages is that the underlying disagreement is not really about the performance type of radar that 052D uses versus another type (AESA vs PESA), but rather about how the "other factors" of 052D compare with the "other factors" of said different ship. So I see the "AESA > PESA in every condition" crowd arguing in the favour of 052D are indirectly saying that 052D's "other factors" should be at least equal to say, the "other factors" of a Burke.