I think I do what I do because using multiple models are overcomplicating things for me. It’s good for immersion, I agree where you have multiple aircraft models. But the sheer number of multiple numbers and liveries that needs to be assigned to each of them increases the complexity significantly.
I just want a standard high-poly model for my AI traffic that is uniform across all airlines when viewed from close inspection. So I just want the default A320 to be used for all twin engines, and 747 for all quad engine traffic. I don’t really care what their actual aircraft is irl. I just want these two to be the generic standard.
That way, whenever I download a specific livery that I want, I can just apply the same texture file to the live traffic model since they use the same model as my usable livery.
It’s not the best solution, but I think it’s a good compromise between standardising maintenance and livery management.
The only thing I can think of to streamline this whole concept is to have a payware traffic addon built-into the marketplace. Which gets automatically updated regularly with new liveries and models that’s designed to just work natively in the sim. But that’s wishful thinking.
I’m okay with editing in the official folder. There’s only one or two lines to do anyway. So if an update restores it, I just do it again in 2 minutes. I’m not too bothered about that.