A ripping yarn - truth is indeed stranger than fiction

I have a bee in my bonnet about a book I have just read. It is 'Glory Girl' by Australian author Peter Yeldham. There is nothing wrong with the book itself as it is well-written and entertaining; it is the fact that it is based on actual facts that worries me.

It tells the story of two aviators in the exciting 1920s when flight was in its infancy. The two aim to be the first to fly from England to Australia. He (James ) is a World War I hero and she (Sarah) is an Australian keen to make her mark in the rarefied world of flying. They become lovers although both are married to others. The flight ends disastrously but they eventually get to Australia where they are received as heroes.  Then the Depression comes and their story goes from riches to rags. They eventually go to America, scraping the barrel to live. They are involved in a love triangle, a murder and a sensational trial. They split up and James decides to do one last flight to Africa, but crashes and his plane and body are not found for 30 years. 

Source: Goodreads

The story is told through the eyes of a narrator, Sarah's former boyfriend, who acts as a kind of Greek chorus, explaining what Bill and Sarah are thinking and their motives for their often bizarre antics. So far, so good. The story was fairly gripping but somehow the characters seemed over the top; James was obsessed with making his name in aviation and kept bleating that he would get a divorce but it never happened, and Sarah appeared self-absorbed and, excuse the pun, flighty.  But their exploits and lives were indeed intriguing as was the depiction of early aviators conquering the skies.

And then ... in the Acknowledgements at the back of the book, the author says that he based the story on real-life aviators Bill Lancaster and Jessie Miller. After a bit of Googling I read more of the fascinating story of this couple, almost exactly as they are depicted in Yeldham's supposedly fictional account. I found that he had not only based his story on their lives, but, it seemed to me, drawn from it in spades. In particular, the flight to Australia, the trial and James's crash in the desert and ultimate discovery are exactly as they happened in reality. He only changed names, added some scenes, and made up a few characters, the narrator being one of them.

Here is a photo  of the real-life Bill (James) and Jessie (Sarah).

Source: Widipedia

So my question is: Why not write a ripping biography? Yeldham has the research and writing skills to do this. I felt that he diminished these people by presenting them as fictional characters. I suppose as  stand-alone story, and if a reader is not interested in the actual history, then the book is a success.

My husband disagrees with my stand on this. 'Authors should be allowed the privilege of deciding for themselves if they want to create a fictional account from real-life events', he says. 'Humph', I reply. I know authors do take elements of actual stories to create their own literary fiction, but in my opinion this was just real-life turned into fiction by changing people's names.

Anyway, I have discovered another book called "Bill Lancaster: The Final Verdict' which is a non-fiction version of the same story, and have ordered it from the library.

Source: Pen and Sword Books (www.pen-and-sword.co.uk)

So, what do you think? Am I just an annoying pedant or do I have a case?