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Re: Half painted Fw 190 wing undersides - the purpose?
I would go with your hypothesis that the metal surfaces were becoming so poor that a coat of paint (perhaps with filler, perhaps not) was put over the leading edge of the wing to smooth the airflow over that part of the wing.
The Me 262 also got that treatment, ie. some paint on the leading edge of the wing, but with most of the underwing left unpainted.
Interestingly enough, in a report comparing wing structures on Allied and German a/c, the leading edge slats on the 109 were criticized, as were the larger rivets on German a/c. They needed more effort to insert, and caused surface buckling.
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