It is possible. Open up your Windows Resource Manger, select the flightsimulator.exe process to only view actions by that process, and you’ll see exactly what it’s doing. It will show you in details what files it’s accessing on your local system as well as any web sites it’s hitting up during the load process.
Throughout much of the loading process, it’s doing nothing other than showing either logos or pretty screens vs actually loading data in the background. And at times, I find the process just hangs (Not Responding in Task Manager) for extended periods of time.