After fully reading this thread, I have come to my conclusion. The greatest fear that simmers have is that the developers will side with the larger gamer community. The simulator will become a game and the realism will be lost.
If we have to define who is who, that will be the definitions I will use.
After a lifetime of flying sims I would hate realism to take a back seat. I don’t believe the developers will let it go that way. They saw what happened when they tried to arcade a sim before.
After a lifetime of flying I have seen the same attitude exhibited by the Old Pilot crowd. The new, young breed have no idea what real flying is about. The youngsters are all just “magenta pilots”.
It’s a new world. The young will inherit not only the earth, but our sim as well. Different is just that. Different. Not better. Not worse. Just different. We can all enjoy a good, realistic game, in our own way. Isn’t that what our new, tolerant, all inclusive world is supposed to be about.