Moving over from Xbox, I’m awaiting delivery of a 7800x3D & 4090. Already got a Honeycomb Alpha, Bravo, Saitek radios and a 55" 4K OLED as well as lots of planes from the MS store.
What are the first things I should be getting?
FS Add-on linker
FSLTL
GSXPro
BeyondATC
Passenger2
Air manager for panels and charts
First - FS addon linker.
Get the sim working good before you start adding lots of third party extras.
FS Addon Linker.
It’s really the only ‘must have’ on that list.
After that I only have experience with FSLTL. Very little experience, as I just installed it yesterday. It’s really cool, though, and didn’t seem to hurt performance as much as I feared.
I find these other addons very useful:
Location Manager Pro
//42 Flow Pro
FSRealistic
Shift+Z Stats (free)
Better Bravo Lights (free)
LittleNavMap (free)
I already have a ton of stuff, definitely planning on FS Addon linker before I even put on WU’s. And I’m avoiding air traffic programs like the plague until I get the rest set up. I’m more interested in shipping and I love VFR stuff first.
I’m hoping I can dump the junk aircraft from the main hangar menu too and all those stupid XB/FS liveries.
Free? I don’t think so mate… 7 days free trial only (or it used to be)
A punchbag (in case it takes two weeks of figuring out why it’s performing worse than Series X! 
).
On a (slightly) more serious note, FSLTL is definitely high on the list if you want true airport immersion. I’m likely going to get Just Flight’s FS Traffic too as the aircraft models are supposedly just as nice but easier on hardware. You can set FSLTL to prioritise FST models and FST has a better variety (for example, FSLTL doesn’t have BCS1, B757, A35K, A343/6, AT42 or any of the 737 MAX types).
I’ve no idea really what Addon Linker is but I seem to be surviving without it. Doesn’t add any simming immersion, as far as I know. But must do something worthwhile as many recommend it.
If you have a PMDG B737, download the Ops Center — there are some fabulous freeware liveries available at flightsim.to!
Kuro B788 and Horizon B789 too. Oh, and FBW A20N.
Addon Linker is an add-on management and troubleshooting tool. What you do is instead of putting all of your third party add-ons into the default community folder, you put them in a separate folder outside the sim folder structure. When you set up the linker, you tell it where those add-ons are located, then it will generate links in the community folder pointing to those add-ons. When the sim loads, it’ll load them as if they were in the community folder.
The main benefit to this is troubleshooting. If you suspect you have an add-on acting up, you can use the linker to turn add-on links off and on without going through the process of deleting and re-downloading everything every time. This makes troubleshooting far less daunting if you have a lot of add-ons. If you don’t have many, then this may not be of much use to you. It is a set and forget bit of software, so it doesn’t hurt to have it just in case.
It also has some scripting options that can automate the sim startup with other programs. Instead of starting up everything separately, starting one can trigger everything else to start. I personally don’t use this function, though.
Very well explained 
I edited my post.
Thanks.
I have to remind myself that I don’t have to launch Linker every time. Once a preset with the desired mods is loaded, the links it creates remain in Community until I switch presets, or add/remove mods from the current one for troubleshooting.
I will stay with Xbox as coachflyer forever, (tuned elite 2 gamepad+headphones in audio communication setting 
do a job) , I fly piston taildraggers to enjoy the scenery below flt100, and I can easily control the sim. In the past I dreamed about yokes, rudders, panels… But now just enjoy budget ratio of my hobbies and personal comfort. It is not plastic imitations of peripherals which give me a goosebumps, it is open world and infiniteve opportunities to go wherever I want. Technically Im back to this franchise from MSFSX so Im impressed anyway ;). No ctd, balck screens etc so far. Im most impressed how far asobo pushed this console (xbxx) so far. Looking forward for msfs24 and multithreading.
It’s great that you are enjoying the sim with your Xbox.
I personally can’t even imagine flying with just an Xbox controller, mouse, and keyboard. I’d lose my mind. 
But that’s just me.
I’m actually jealous of those who enjoy the sim the way you do. I gotta admit, and my posting history here is indicative of this - it is definitely the tinkering, and the addons, and the pretty drone camera tricks, and the tactile hardware peripherals that gives me goosebumps, more so than the amazing recreation of the VFR world that this sim accomplishes. I wish I were better at appreciating the latter instead of obsessing over the former, and getting everything to work together smoothly and efficiently.
As I move over to PC, being that I fly a lot of GA and military jets. Are there any mods that actually make those types of airfields seem alive. It would be nice to see some activity and make it feel more alive. At times I feel like a soul survivor in the world.
Edit : I have searched on Flightsim.to and there is a ton of cool add ons to add to these styles of airports but nothing I can find that addresses air traffic. I might have missed it, so if anyone can point me in that direction.
FSLTL has GA options but since the focus is mainly on airliners, I’ve no idea how good they are. I have my GA settings right down but do see the odd light aircraft.
I’ve come across various mods that add new models to JF’s FST but haven’t investigated whether that includes GA. There are tons of free add-ons that place static GA traffic, from what I’ve seen.
I’m sure you’ll come across something enticing if you keep trawling flightsim.to…
This is what you are looking for.
That’s an interesting mod I’ve not seen before. I have GA enabled with native settings in FSLTL and it seems to work OK for me.
For VFR I think the most important addons are Mamu’s marinas, powerlines, towers etc if you can still get them, and also We Love VFR. Makes such a difference to have these things.
Doesn’t We Love VFR conflict with a number of other popular add-ons? I have all Orbx’s UK packs, plus most of their global cityscapes. I also have Drzewiecki’s Seattle Landmarks and a couple of Samscene3D’s. We Love VFR is Europe only, if I’m not mistaken?
There are 3 regions now so it’s pretty much global I think.
May be some conflicts with Orbx GB stuff, but nothing too jarring that I have seen.