I think they understood part of the user base. They didn’t seem to think that there are other ways of doing it. Or didn’t realize there was another segment. Or didn’t have time? From my conversations with them, though, it looks like they didn’t think of it.
It also seems like they also underestimated the effort necessary to get to helicopters, for example. 30 minutes flying fixed wing aircraft is clearly not enough to get the helicopter license. So much that I quit career mode and I didn’t even get to it. It’s just not fun for me, at all. I’m doing free flight and World Photographer challenges.
I welcome career mode. I welcome the license system, the points system, the virtual currency. I think the tutorials integrated in career mode are fantastic. All that is nicely done – with the exception of bugs and issues but that’s all going to get fixed. That’s excellent for people that want to do that and I am genuinely happy that it was included because it was necessary and a very big step in the right direction.
But while they did this to cater for people that wanted or even needed that structure to learn, they forgot that there are many more folks out there that are experienced, know what they are doing (or don’t care about doing it wrong) and they just want to use the new mission dynamics. Not to make money, not to get points, not to progress through a tree system, but just to have fun for a bit.