Ignoring the graphics workarounds, which are probably due to game limitations, "too dark" is relative. Most of us live in areas where there is a moderate to severe "light pollution" at night, so we don't have an intuitive understanding of just how dark the night sky can be.
In Northern Europe, in winter, flying over water or bare ground, with 100% overcast overhead, you will have almost no visibility, to the point that you might not even be able to see your hand in front of your face.
Flying over snow or desert on an overcast night, you'll get a bit of light scatter from the ground, but it will still be very dark. You probably won't be able to see more than a meter or so, and definitely need to use IFR when flying.
Flying over open water or wilderness areas on a moonless but clear night, you'll have no illumination from the ground, but the starlight above will "silhouette" aircraft above the skyline and will give you a bit of help in figuring out where the horizon is. Actual visibility on the ground might be just a few meters, however. Again, you probably need IFR.
Flying over snow or desert on a clear moonless night, you might be able to tell where the ground is if you get close, and you'll have the stars above to silhouette things, but visibility still won't be more than a few meters. (Airmen flying over the desert at night sometimes mistook the desert for ocean, with disastrous results.)
In summer at the extreme latitudes, the sun will never be that far below the horizon, so there will always be a bit of "sunset" on the appropriate horizon. In such cases, you might be able to use VFR at night under a clear sky, but visibility of anything other than light sources will still be limited to less than a kilometer.
The same goes for flying under a full moon under a very clear sky, particularly if the ground is snowy. They called the full moon a "bomber's moon" for a reason.
Settled areas won't give that much light, either. 70 years ago, most portions of the world didn't have electricity, and since the world population was just 1/4 to 1/5 of what it is today, most cities and towns were much smaller. Furthermore, lights weren't as cheap and efficient as they are in the 21st century, so even in wealthy, settled areas lighting was sparser and dimmer by modern standards.
For example, check out color pictures of New York's Time Square in the 1940s vs. a recent picture. Back then, you'd struggle to read a newspaper, even under all the neon lights. Today, you could easily read fine print.
Additionally, when flying in a war zone, most countries observed blackouts (the exception being the Germans in 1944-45, who figured that blackouts didn't do much good, and just interfered with fighter interception and emergency services on the ground). Areas near the front lines would be abandoned or blacked out to avoid being targets from ground fire.
The exception is that burning cities will provide bright light, particularly if there is overcast to give an "sky glow" effect. Bomber crews regularly remarked on how bright the fires were, and the Luftwaffe was able to successfully carry out "wilde sau" (interception by fighters not equipped with radar) operations under such conditions. Bombers could be silhouetted between the ground and overcast due to the glare.
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