Blackdog, I agree completely. Every one of your posts seems to be excellently written. Are you a professional writer?
The civil flight sims (MS and X-Plane) shouldn't be regarded as a finished product straight out the box. They're more like a second operating system for your computer. A PC with Windows and nothing else is pretty stupid, using Notepad and Solitaire and Internet Explorer. Same with FSn and X-Plane. You need to invest the time and sometimes money in getting the specific software to do what you want to do. But a flight simulator with a load of stuff installed into it is a lot more fun than a PC operating system
The problem I found is - maybe I'm a bit too compulsive - I end up spending more time finding, downloading, installing, maintaining, and talking on forums about the addons than I actually would spend flying and enjoying myself. But that's my own bad discipline and inability to recognise the things I do and don't enjoy in life