No. They were not. The hobby had been shrinking pretty much consistently since the release of FSX.
And it was shrinking not only because competing products were done by small teams (in the case of P3D small by choice, because LM certainly has the resources to put into it. They just choose not to), but also because these small teams have been completely uninterested into bringing innovation to the hobby, and more importantly into involving new blood into it.
Flight simulation may be a niche hobby, but in the past decade I have seen zero efforts to make it less niche before MSFS came along. As a matter of fact, I’ve seen companies absolutely content to just keep the same little club of old users, instead of reaching outward. LM’s ****** (insert unflattering term here) pricing policies certainly didn’t help either.
I’m very interested in seeing how this will go. Especially how add-ons will be managed.