I can’t recall - the flight was back in December. I rarely use the autopilot and I’m pretty sure that the flight - like all the flights in the Aviator aircraft - was hand flown from within the cockpit. I did not own this aircraft in 2020 so cannot compare the 2024 version to the 2020 version.
That’s a known bug in 2024 & affects a number of the default MSFS aircraft.
No, I have the the portside engines mapped to one throttle axis and the starbord engines mapped to a second throttle axis.
w.r.t. expectations, I upgraded to the Aviator Edition approximately a year after the release of 2024, so was aware of the bugs that had been reported by users, and knew that there would be issues. With the release of some fixes for some aircraft on December 4th, I thought that the aviator aircraft would continue to get some attention over time - and indeed, five will be re-released as 2024 native aircraft in tandem with the release of SU5, with more to follow in future AAUs.