So in my humble opinion, career and sandbox don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
I mean, yes, some people will skip the career and just play the sandbox. You probably have that with every game that offers a sandbox.
But what drives people to play the career? I’m not a hardcore simmer. For me personally, it’s the appeal of starting small and then working my way up. It’s motivating for me when someone is waving a reward in front of my nose the whole time. Then ultimate realism is no longer so important to me, to be honest.
I had the most fun with msfs 2020 when I discovered Neofly. Instead of just cranking around aimlessly, I had something to do. Finally.
That’s why I’m a big fan of the career mode - even if it still needs a lot of work.
But nevertheless, I think it would be a nice to have to be able to play a mission just like that. Without the pressure of my reputation or virtual wallet suffering if I fail.
I therefore believe that the two modes can coexist, because at the end of the day a sandbox is nothing more than a career without punishment orreward.
I don’t think that the development of the career mode will suffer because I believe that even the firefighting missions will become boring at some point if there is no progress and no reward. So some, if not the most, people will find their way back to the regular career mode.
But as I said, that’s just my humble opinion.