Believe it or not, its actually more realistic to tie the elevation into the pitch of a helicopter. When a helicopter moves forward, it changes the direction of the main rotor, thus less of the thrust is pointed down and some of it pointed backwards. In order to compensate for that loss of downward thrust, more throttle has to be applied.
I do agree that the helicopters are a little more difficult to fly. The banking seems a little sluggish, and if you bank too hard its difficult to counteract and recover. I could understand the sluggishness for the transport choppers, but I would expect the scout choppers to be pretty nimble.
In a real helicopter you control the movement (forward/back/left/right) with the cyclic stick and the elevation with the collective, which increases/decreases the ascent of the heli.