Topband: The Magic-T

[P H]

My impression is that a hybrid combiner, which introduces 90 degree shift (hence two identical signals of amplitude A fed to its inputs will give in total a signal with the amplitude of 1.41*A) is 3dB less efficient in comparison to a simple combiner where A+A gives 2*A at the output.
Do you have any thoughts on this?
A loss of 3 dB may be like "to be or not to be" of a QSO on 160 meters.
Regards
Piotr, SP2BPD