This is precisely why I dislike developing for this sim - the flight model relies too heavily on scalars adjusting things, and this takes away from the accuracy which we were able to achieve in FSX and P3D.
Just as an example, an aircraft I am currently working on has an engine which provides a maximum of 750hp. In the previous sims, provided the engine was built correctly and this power achieved / correct coefficients in place you would have a reasonably accurate rendition of the aircraft.
In MSFS, to make an aircraft behave vaguely realistically you have to, as you say, increase the drag above the realistic / accurate / calculated levels. You then have to compensate by increasing the thrust scalar, so my 750hp engine is probably now putting out 900 to 1000hp. How on earth is that either accurate or an improvement on what went before?