As pointlessly suggested by the Mods here, I reached out to MS via Zendesk and raised a ticket.
Below is the useless reply I got from them:
Hi XXXXXX,
Thank you for contacting Microsoft Flight Simulator Support today. Unfortunately, we at MSFS2020 Support have no control over the connection speeds to the various content delivery networks.
Content delivery is provided by Microsoft | Azure Playfab. You can view the Status of PlayFab services and history of incidents here: https://status.playfab.com/
Authentication : May prevent players to access the game in Online Mode.
Data : May prevent players to access the game in Online Mode.
Content : May prevent players to access the game in Online Mode.
Cloud Script : May prevent players to access the game in Online Mode.
Data : May impact the Marketplace.
Inventory : May impact the Marketplace.
Content : May impact the Marketplace.
If there is an outage, please try again later.
If there is no outage, we recommend following our guide “[Slow download speed]”(https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015761760-Slow-download-speed)" to improve the connection to Azure Playfab’s servers.
Kind regards,
Microsoft Flight Simulator Support Team
MSFS_Stetson
I have since replied to them with the following:
Hi MSFS_Stetson,
Thanks for your reply. The team at MSFS2020 may not have control over connection speeds to various content delivery networks, however, you could switch to or use better CDNs or fix MSFS2020 to select the fastest CDN INSTEAD of the geographically closest one. The closest one need not be the fastest as demonstrated by the screenshots shared.
In India, when using MSFS 2020, the speeds of the CDN we connect to (possible servers in India) are impossible to work with. My symmetrical 350 Mbits/s connects at 2 Mbits/s to the servers that MSFS uses. This means a download time of either 9 and a half days with my system running 24/7 or almost 20 days if my system runs only during the day.
To bypass the connection to your Indian servers or whichever servers MSFS 2020 choose to connect to, I use a paid VPN service that puts me in Seattle. When that happens I’m downloading and streaming data at 150 Mbits/s to 250 Mbits/s.
Based on the above, the issues are CLEARLY not to do with my connection or my settings here. Also, it’s not my job to figure all this out for you and figure out some way to make MSFS 2020 playable after spending all that I have on your Premium Deluxe Edition as well as your content from your Marketplace.
Since you cannot control Azure Playfab or Microsoft’s CDN, you can fix your game to connect to the fastest available server INSTEAD OF the closest geographical server because as I stated before, the closest one need not be the fastest and I’ve proven the same by using a VPN to Seattle.
As a customer, I’m putting the onus and responsibility back on you then as you need to fix your game/simulator to work with the CDN that YOU chose such that customers all over the world have equal access and great connection speeds to the CDNs that YOU chose. Get my drift? Now does this make better sense for you?
P.S. I reformatted my entire system, ran a fresh install of Steam and MSFS 2020 and still got 2 Mbits/s. No antivirus, no software tweaks, no other applications running in the background. Switch on the VPN and boom, decent speeds to your chosen network.
The issue rests with the MSFS team and the CDNs they choose. If they cannot direct the CDNs they choose to provide better services to those ignored in other geographical locations, you need to fix MSFS 2020 to select the FASTEST server as opposed to the CLOSEST server.
Regards,
XXXXXX