Do expensive CPU's and GPU's pay off in VR?

It is a pretty good GPU for desktop flying, until you expect it to perform well at high resolution VR with high settings then it will struggle with performance and VRAM limits.

If by crafted you mean payware (like Orbx YSSY) and Asobo crafted airports (like KLAX, EGLL) they run fine with the PMDG 737 in all flight phases, normally giving me 35+ FPS but sometimes as low as 30 FPS if the weather is heavy too. Although I said most of my flying is GPU bound, big airports with lots of MP or AI aircraft is one where the CPU becomes the determinant of performance on my system and large cache on my 5800X3D really helps with the smoothness in these areas. I previously had an i9 10850K and it struggled and stuttered at these complex airports.

Edit: Just loaded up Concorde at Orbx YSSY with a few MP aircraft, lots of FSLTL aircraft and partly cloudy conditions (live weather). I’m getting 38 FPS external view and 41 FPS in the cockpit. You can see mainthread frame time is just slightly greater than GPU frame time, so I am marginally CPU bound and to me that is an excellent balance of component performance for such a scenario.

Same scenario but with PMDG 737. This one has me slightly GPU bound as the 737 is coded very efficiently.