I’m having the same free flight issues the OP mentioned, plus several others. Scanning responses from people who are having success with 2024, I see common themes - dumbing down the game by avoiding complexities, such as ATC and IFR, and sticking to a small subset of functional aircraft. That’s a truly shameful outcome for this massively hyped 2024 version. The previous one had rough edges but it basically worked. Developers eliminated many of the intuitive and fun features of 2020 and focused on shiny new add-ons that don’t work.
Trying to take a product to the next level does not work if you totally destroy the foundation it was built on.