I use the in-game ATC and it’s fine. It works 95% of the time for me. I’ll be happy to see it improved but it is definitely not broken.
I guess you missed this thread:
ATC Callsigns missing - Bugs & Issues / ATC & NAVAIDs - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums
But even if this gets fixed it is still broken and far from realistic.
Because:
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It constantly assigns runways that are forcing you to take off with a sizable tailwind component, which is wrong. It should be assigned runways so you can take off into a headwind. Broken.
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It does not know the airport layouts well enough to create a realistic taxi flow, no matter where I look. Traffic conflicts also happen, where two aircraft are moving onto the same taxiway and get stuck.
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The AI traffic is another weak spot because it is awfully slow and clogs up active runways by literally crawling down the entire length only to take the last exit, forcing other planes to go around. It also takes ages to taxi to the hold short line.
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If you fly over mountainous terrain you will almost certainly receive contradictory descent/climb instructions in an attempt to keep you above the MSA. Conversely, it will often not let you descent at all and you miss your initial approach fix by several thousand feet.
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That leads to the ATC not handing you off to the tower for your approach or just vectoring you around constantly.
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Pushback is super unintuitive. There is no way to line up the nose gear with the taxi line or not overshoot the 90° angle when you push your tail to either side because you actually have to relay taxi instructions to the tug. If you don’t do that, you will end up in a perpetual 360° circle taxi.
I could go on but to say it works 95% is stretching the truth in my opinion.