It’s interesting… You know, after SU5 I was reading so much on here about the ‘Visual Downgrade’ and I was thinking to myself, I am not noticing any of this that people are seeing and complaining about. I mean, all was looking great and performance was top. Until yesterday when I broke through 2,000 feet or so it was instantly noticeable. I was actually really surprised and instantly thought something was not right… So, now I really ponder. 
I have noticed this as well, not scenery necessarily but texture quality degradation around the aircraft before update 5. I would go into the free camera view and move the camera about 300 yards away and come back to it looking normal as it should.