The Kinetic assistant is a good workaround to make gliding possible at all.
The only way to gain altitude without that is ridge soaring, but only with strong wind settings.
And because the up/down drafts are currently limited it’s no fun at all.
In the latest Q&A they stated that they have to improve the up and down drafts and thermals (which I never noticed anywhere) before giving us a realism slider, but that is not even started yet/ there is no timeline for that.
so if we want native glider support prioritised, we should all leave a vote right here as well: