It does not fully simulate the job aspects of flight but that would be a management sim more then a flight sim. You make your own objectives and your own story. If you are on PC you can add mods to get some of that management stuff. But I don’t think Asobo is going to program in cargo or you punching a clock.
Speaking as one of the ‘Xbox crowd’ (whatever that means), I’ve found plenty to sustain my interest - whether flying over parts of the globe I’ve never visited, to taking on the challenge of completing one of the many bush trips. I would particularly recommend the latter to the OP if they’re looking for something with a bit more structure.
In the sense that it has more flexibility and exposure to add-ons, yes. On Xbox, I’m enjoying the core experience and can plan flights, start my aircraft, fly without assists, land and shut-down.
MSFS is no more or less a ‘game’ on Xbox that on PC because both Xbox and PC ‘players’ will enjoy it more seriously or more casually as they prefer. 
Am I enjoying a sim on Xbox? Clearly yes. Is it game? Well, I’m not actually flying, so yes.
To appreciate a flight sim, you need to have a genuine interest in all aspects of aviation. I suppose some gamers might get the bug, but most won’t.
I have an Xbox Series X and just love Forza Horizons 4, and tried MSFS 2020 on it, but it did nothing for me on the Xbox. I can only properly enjoy the sim on a PC with the proper control peripherals i.e. yoke, throttle quadrant and rudder. I’m a long dormant real world VFR pilot, and I’m using the sim to learn modern Nav equipment and IFR.
If you don’t want to do this kind of stuff, I can see MSFS 2020 getting boring pretty quickly.
Anyway, my 2 cent rant is over for the day.
You’re misunderstanding the difference between a flight arcade game and a flight simulator. One aims to recreate a story, putting action before all else, the other aims to recreate civilian flight. Very important distinctions.
Agreed. But some people are into the instant gratification aspect of things. If they don’t get that, you can’t maintain interest. And there’s really very little of that to be found in MSFS. And it sounds to me like the OP is very much one of those people.
To be clear, that’s not meant in a derogatory way. It’s just the way some people are. Typically, a sim experience like this is not for them.
Completely agree. I’ve enjoyed my experience of simming far more on Xbox than I ever did on PC. I’m aware of the limitations but am happy to trade the greater flexibility of PC for the ease of use, plug and play convenience, and well-turned performance of the Xbox version. Due to all these quality of life improvements, I’m getting into the sim in much greater depth than I likely ever would have done on PC.
Why do people need to be so elitist about this? Aren’t there PC mods and 3rd party apps to role play as a commercial airline pilot, complete with how content you keep the passengers? Career mode apps to role play as a commuter or cargo pilot complete with currency?
Why is asking for an in sim version a bad thing?
One observation I’d make on accessibility, is that even 22 training missions barely explains everything. I’m quite patient (and persistent) and I’ve found it challenging to figure out planning, flying, starting, shutting the aircraft from a ‘cold start’ (not having simmed for 30 years) without a good deal of trial and error.
I’m really enjoying the sim for its own delights, but it could benefit from some more structure and learning to complement the flying experience.
In his Gamescon Interview Jörg told, that there will be more tutorials missions
I agree with OP. Although I’ve spent 500 hours in the sim by now and I have loved almost every minute of it I still really enjoy the missions and career mode in American Truck Simulator. I tried getting into Neofly but it’s just too complicated to use and it feels artificial.
The fact that the saving and loading feature has been broken since launch a year ago and nobody even talks about it tells me that people are okay with quick sessions without any sort of persistence. It’s why Just Flight had to create their own save state system for their aircraft. Being able to save the state of your plane for things like multi-day cross-country flights seems like a core, basic, obvious feature that should not be so broken. Even without Forza-like features, just being able to properly save could go a long way towards adding some persistence and purpose.
I’ve been PC simming for 18 years, I’ve been there and done all the full career mode with study level aircraft stuff, and even I can empathise with this sentiment. In fact, I hope someone from Asobo Studios and Xbox Game Studios will print it out, frame it, and hang it behind the the desk on reception.
Funny. I played Forza Horizon 4 for 20 hours and got bored with the repetition. I’ve played FS2020 for over 3,000 hours, not bored yet. (Fed up with all the new bugs though)
But I agree, there is a lot of low hanging fruit that could have been added to keep players more engaged. Simply rating every landing (as a landing challenge) and adding leader boards for every runway / plane combination like traffic speed cameras in FH would give people something to do. (with the option to turn ratings off of course)
Daily spotlight challenges can be randomly generated, multiplayer events to draw people to the same spots.
And why not a career mode like Truck Simulator. Start as a small bush pilot and work your way up to a 747-8 doing trans continental passenger/cargo flights.
YouTube is your friend.
Until SU5 / Xbox launch, all we had was a the basic flying lessons in the C152. And the lessons were short, basic, and buggy. And like now, there were no manuals, guides, etc.
YouTube turned out to be the best learning resource. At launch last year, I started knowing very little. And through watching different videos, I learned to operate the systems in any of the stock planes (except airliners - don’t fly those). And when I had questions, I posted in the forum here and others gladly helped me understand what I didn’t previously.
Exactly! The OP’s post is complaining that features like these are NOT built-in when they should be. Nobody should have to buy 3rd-party add-ons to make a game playable or a sim, simmable (I’ve just invented a new word lol).
Speak for yourself 
I’m loving it!
Try learning a plane more deeply. Or any other subject in aviation. Try some difficult or challenging approaches or routes until you can nail them by the book. Try simulating flights you’ve been on yourself or any other flight you can find/think of. Get some addons or planes and explore some new areas or come up with new flights.
The possibilities are endless, IMO!
The whole multiplayer aspect of MSFS is rather poor and has been from the start. The lack of interactivity between players, the fact each person has their own ATC, their own game world, etc that’s different makes for a rather tough situation for creating such events. You can’t even see other players on your maps / glass cockpits, etc.
Perhaps at some point, they’ll fix all those things. Then creating proper multiplayer challenges may be worth it. Perhaps they’ll be introducing such MP fixes with the air race DLC when it drops.
As much as I don’t care for game features in the sim, missions / career mode and such should really be a staple of the sim and not require 3rd party add ons. Paritcularly when they made the sim available on console that can’t access those things.
If you don’t find flying fun, then the title called “Flight Simulator” was probably not a good use of your money.
This franchise is for people who find aircraft and aviation interesting for their own sake. Always has been. The challenges and stuff are just window dressing, and the majority of the player base have a long list of things they would rather the developers put their time into improving/fixing than making more of those.
I‘m on Xbox and I don‘t want Fligh Sim to be like Forza Horizon. Regarding Forza, I prefer Motorsport and feel offended when console simulator guys are seen as arcade junkies. Console and simulators are not mutual exclusive (as can be seen with Assetto Corsa Competizione in console)
I had PCs for many years. But for my work I switched to Mac a few years back and have not looked back. I don’t miss the days of fiddling with GPU drivers and hilarious graphics card prices. Enjoying my Series X as a carefree way to have a bit of enjoyment and fun after a day of work doesn’t make me less entitled to a proper sim.
Besides that Flight Sim always was a game and always will be. As with Assetto Corsa Competizione. Both closer to reality than other games but still games. An both at home on PC as well as console.