Actually that's a good attitude towards the whole deal. I too can wait for extra detail to be added. Like i always like to say, we didn't have water=3 in the original IL2, but we got it someday
As for me, i think i would use the manual mode every time and it would be especially rewarding if there was a bonus to it.
For example, the way Black Shark does it is good. You can press left windows key + home key and the chopper starts up all by itself
but not as if by magic. It still goes through all the steps required. The advantage to learning how to do it yourself is that experienced users can start it faster than the auto-start feature can. So, pressing left win + home might start the chopper in 40 seconds, but an experienced user doing it manually might be able to do it in 25 seconds.
I think that's a very good compromise. It allows people who want full difficulty FM/DM without the hassle of extreme systems management to fly on the same server as people who want 110% difficulty (which prevents further diluting the community and spreading us thin across a billion servers with different difficulty settings), while also providing a reward and an incentive for those who take the time to learn how to do a few things extra.
In any case, the most important part for me is that we have a confirmation from mr. Maddox that even if checklists are not included, the consequences of improper system operation are there. That's the first and most important step and it will change and revolutionize the way people fly and fight online.
I just went back and read another one of his posts 1-2 pages back and it pretty much says that almost everything will work except the start procedure. That's good enough for me and a steep evolutionary curve from the IL2 way of doing things. I would still like to have it all modelled, but i know that this one must get to release sometime and money must be generated if we want to see more features
Also, Splitter's explanations about what won't work, what will work and how is pretty much the way i understand it as well. I doubt people will be forced to use either interface, the most probable thing to happen is that they will be able to use both at the same time according to what they like best.
I think that a lot of people are not familiar with clickable sims and that's why they think that clicking on things is mandatory in such sims. To my knowledge, there's not a single flight sim out there that forces you to click everything. Taking Black Shark as an example once again, i've never flown that but i downloaded the manual when it was made available before release.
Every single switch and function in that chaotic cockpit can be mapped to a keypress or stick button, scratch that, they are even mapped by default the moment you install it. The reason people click stuff is that they can remember which button drops the gear and which lever changes the collective, but they can't remember that ctrl+shift+alt+> is used to select the fourth softkey in the bottom row of the MFD...for things like that it's simpler to just point at it and press the mouse button.
The important thing is to look at the forest and not just the tree. Most of us lack the interface and input devices to simulate everything the best way. Some have pedals, some have dual throttle HOTAS, some have head tracking, some have custom sim-pits, but very few people have everything.
In order for a title to succeed we need a strong user community. In order to build and sustain a community, all these people must have a means of flying together in the same environment, regardless of their hardware setup. In order for them to be able to fly the same software in the same environments, some things have to be designed to work with the most common PC interfaces that everyone is sure to have...keyboards and mice. If customized cockpits were cheap we wouldn't be having this discussion, but these things are not cheap at all.
So, the defining question ends up being this. Can we compromise to use less than ideal interfaces in order to have more advanced modelling of aircraft features, or will we throw the baby out with the bath water and miss out on a bunch of realism because we don't like the interface that much? I think the answer is obvious here. People who say that complex systems management should be neglected because clicking on stuff or remembering complex keymap assignments is unnatural are the equivalent of a real WWII pilot saying "i refuse to drop flaps for landing because i don't want to take my hands off the throttle and stick".
I'm glad the developers understand this and are giving us choices, instead of "railroading" the gameplay for everyone involved.