Personal Comment
I think folks who have spent years in MMORPGs are better placed from a mindset perspective for what MSFS is compared to previous standalone FS products. MMORPG players got used to a Software-as-a-Service model even before SaaS became a buzzword.
In short, they became acclimated with widespread changes that affected the platform as a whole, better or worse, and the idea that their collective experience was tied to change management that was big and small. And that change was not consistently forward, some of it was regressive.
For everyone else who’s used to having their “fate” in their own hands by choosing when to upgrade, and that choice did not prevent them from operating the product, it’s a difficult (and given some of the extreme reactions I’ve seen) sometimes impossible transition. Understandable, but I don’t think part of the population really understood what they were getting into when they bought the product in August '20. By virtue of having spent half my life in IT, I read between the lines what this product implications meant when the media started writing it up before Alpha. So to that extent, I was prepared somewhat.
What does that mean for this topic? Don’t hang your hat on any milestone or SU. Go in with the expectation that things will be better, sure. But understand that a product this complex, and with this many moving parts and dependencies, there is no such thing as a Magic Bullet. Case in point, my low to medium rig struggled with the sim performance wise until SU5. Then it turned the corner with the code merge for XBox. Now I’m in a waiting game for: Avionics, ATC and Traffic. Weather got better and it’s getting better all the time.
People throw around the term 10 Year Project, but really, none of us (and I’m really an end user, I don’t see any inside info - Mods are user volunteers), without seeing how the sausage is made - meaning the Burndown charts and Backlog (Agile terms) that the Dev Teams (plural) work off daily, we really cannot fathom how big a chunk of work an SU is, and how much of it knocks down items from the charts. Or for that matter, the level of effort it takes to achieve one line item from the public Roadmap.
It takes some Zen to balance out the experience of MSFS. I try to be positive. That doesn’t mean I don’t have peeves that bother me a lot, but it does mean I want to get a better experience with what I have today. SU9 is just another milestone on seven and a half years to go. Enjoy it for what it might improve, and be patient for what it might not address. 'Nuff said.