I think that the explanation for this is that not that many people feel as strongly as you about it. I have to be honest, I think the graphics are great, and I have no complaints in that regard. Are they perfect? No of course not - but given MS need to be able to cater to different setups and different internet connections as well as balancing server loads (and that latter one is definitely being messed about with at their end at the moment) I suspect they are trying to find the right balance of performance v quality. I’ve no idea what the alpha looked like, but from my perspective, I don’t mind the odd visible pop in (it happens in pretty much every game at some point) and right now would prefer the focus to be more on the AP, flight planning and other “technical” glitches that do much more to sour the experience. Given the number of votes, I don’t think I’m alone in this.
Asking for the graphics quality controls to be extended may well be a good solution to this, but as you’ve already said, LOD alone isn’t the answer. That suggests the solution is more complex and it seems reasonable that the devs have a good reason for doing whatever they are doing between Alpha and now. As I said I have no reference point. However it doesn’t seem obvious to me that just ebcause something worked in a specific way in the alpha that it must (or even can) work that way in live. Otherwise why have alpha?