Sorry SadPole, anyone who has ever had a VW or GMC MAF Sensor problem will tell you a MAF measure is not the answer. Compared to a pitot tube they are unreliable, need a computer to translate the indication to anything useable and when they do go wrong they screw up everything around them.
By comparison a pitot tube is an elegant, simple and direct measurement that relies directly in a principle of physics. The only complication in this event is that the modification (heating) to cope with low temps and high altitude and water were inadequate. Not the fault of the basic principle.