I tend to agree with all of the sentiments expressed in this thread. The value in the marketplace is that it consolidates all purchases and makes it (theoretically) easy to keep them up to date. However, the lag time that is added to the process is very frustrating and reduces overall value proposition. I don’t have any knowledge of why the process of adding content to the marketplace takes so long, but if there is any vetting going on (security or otherwise), I don’t consider that to be a value add. I would trust Microsoft to have the necessary contracts in place to ensure minimum quality standards are met and prevent the uploading of malware. That is enough for me. Waiting beyond the release dates of new add-ons or much needed updates to owned products is immensely frustrating. At the moment, I really want to purchase Princess Julianna through the market place, but having to wait for it is extremely annoying. I was very much hoping to see it appear today, since rumor has it that Fridays are the day for marketplace updates. I went through the same thing with CYVR; albeit at the time that I decided that I wanted it, I believed (correctly) that it would appear in the marketplace on the upcoming Friday.
The other related problem with the market place is the fact that the content manager is very lacking in functionality. Having to search the entire list of content to see if possibly anything needs to be updated is onerous. Ideally, the content manager should proactively notify the user whenever there is an available update. It also desperately needs some sort options; i.e. Asobo, third party payware, freeware, updates available, etc.
To be clear, I wouldn’t prioritize the content manager fixes above sim and aircraft fixes, but IMO eventually content manager should be finished.