The bulk of our community say 70~90% are what might be categorized as casual gamers. purists and aviation enthusiasts account for a small minority. MS is not going to deliver what a small minority wants, there simply is not enough return in it for them. Hence things like air dynamics etc are taylored for the masses who would find aerodynamic concepts and historical accuracy too challenging. In other words, getting it right results in either a poor seller or a long life span product - not good for business.
But they did it for 20 years, since the first Flight simulator. Fortunatelly they are going smarter, and they will soon stop the flight sim serie to begin a new Crismon Skies serie for the next 20 years, right ? ::)
An example is the fact that you hardly ever see anyone complain about the bull**** ground speed in any of these sims. Trust me on this, 200 feet altitude at 450 knots is very, very different from what you see in CFS1/2/3 FS9 etc. In the virtual world the average punter would fly straight into the side of a hill if MS sims were accurate in this respect. Although in my opinion they should at least get this one right as it would be a major selling point.
What do you mean there ? That what you see on your screen is not as you see it in real life ? LOL and then you proudly state that the sim is not precise ? Yeah most likely they have used some dumb math formula they took off from FeeSpace2, and applied it to FS to get less realism on purpose ;D

::)
I have programmed some similar application. The fact is that you will never get the same speed feeling as in real life, until the ground gets as detailed as in real life, and your screen gets as big as it can. BUT the sim is currently accurate, and there's just nothing to complain about. If you flight 450 mph at 200 feet in the sim during X seconds, you will go exactely the same distance as if you would flight 450 mph at 200 feet during X seconds in real life. Your small screen, your small resolution and the actual visual level of detail in the sims just can't give you the same feelling for now. :P
Someone on this thread stated that FSX will have improved flight modelling, I don't think so.
Personally I would agree with the general concensus that MS are hedging toward gaming, i.e. xbox and it's offsprings.
Why ? Because they have adapted the interface so that you could pilot on a Joypad instead of a yoke ? Wow, do you know the first versions of the sim could be played with the mouse ? or even with the keyboard ? Sooooooo arcade, I tell you... ;D
Does anybody there seriously think that FS could ever be played on a gaming Console ? No chance with the actual console players, and No chance either without a keyboard and a mouse.
For the enthusiast minority, I think it would be better to 'wait and see'. After all, plenty out there who are so eager to get the latest offering no matter what you tell em. This way there will be plenty of feedback, and at least FSX will have been given a chance.
true

Alternatively, re-write all the airfiles, damage profiles, model scaling, and make accurate sound files. Then you have a half decent sim.
half-decent, you're even more pessimistic than I am ;D