Sim hangs after welcome screen even after new install

I’ve been running MSFS for years with little problems. This week after the welcome screen when I selected a flight the sim loaded up to about 80% and then just hung there. Restart in safe mode and same issue. Removed community - same issue.
Did a repair install - same issue.
Completely reinstalled sim - same issue.
At this point I verified that my system itself was fine with various benchmarks etc. Only program not working is MSFS2020.

I removed all controllers except wireless keyboard/mouse same issue - everything is fine up to welcome screen, just hangs at about 80% load after selecting flight.
I completely reinstalled again (170gb worth) - same issue.

One thing I noticed, when sim hangs, I use either ALT F4 or close button - when I restart, it does NOT ask for safe mode. I was able to force safe mode but problem remains.

I logged out of xbox and back in - same problem
System restore - same
used SFC and other commands to refresh windows image - no joy.
Only thing I haven’t done is try running windows in safe mode and running MSFS and deleting my cloud save settings although with nothing connected but mouse/keyboard I don’t see how my controller settings would affect this.
Can anyone tell me what is going on in the sim at the 80%ish load mark?
I am open to suggestions.

Thanx

I seem to have resolver the issue. I copied the entire wgs folder and then deleted same. I disconnected from the internet and started the sim. Since it couldn’t download anything through xbox, the sim started with minimum defaults. This time it actually started the flight as expected. Exited, copiued the original wgs folder back and started sim - went into the flight as expected.
Don’t completely understand why it worked but glad it did.

Weird one. Well done for staying calm!
This software has a mind of its own. Quite an annoying mind at times! Definitely promotes a “love / hate” relationship!

I think the MS Store version seems more prone to this kind of random fault. So bizarre that a Microsoft product has this much trouble running on a Microsoft OS lol