Very simple yet deep question.
For me personally it’s a getaway from rl a bit, relax my mind and soar through the skies.
I always looked up to the skies as a kid and admired these marvelous birds flying half across the world full of people in them.
Unfortunately never had the means to start for a CPL etc, but simming is kinda living the dream in some way 
I’m afraid that flying so high like a bird in the sky is my idea of nothing to do.
Being up in the air, seeing the world from above. I used to FPV quadcopter fly a few years with goggles, I got out when the FAA was cracking down hard and I lived in a place where I had plenty of room to fly. I loved seeing the word from a whole different view…Maybe I should get another quadcopter!
Sometimes its about being home and join the fun
Jets slamming on the brakes over my house is constantly noticeable
Edit: and wow is it busy right now
Real-life recreational pilot + long-time simmer = addiction =
I could go on, but enough already! Cheers.
Flying is living you experience so much that no other human could imagine and you see things no one would be able to describe its just one of those things you experience specially for me in the commercial industry so much work goes into planning carefully to make sure you and your passengers have the greatest time possible the sky is amazing and well for sims it’s a good experience because you get to remember that same joy or at least come close enough to it.
A means of transportation 
I hear that! I live on the path of 15R to logan it’s pretty fun plane spotting with the FlightRadar App as well lol.
Main part of life after work and retirement ! Travelling anywhere of the world with msfs is possible now!
Being able to experience a little bit of something that I can not physically do for real.
I had lessons when I was younger. Got to solo and take my Dad and friend up…good times (though looking back I can’t believe I did…would have only had around 25 hours but I guess safe enough…)
Now I just love trying to sim things as realistically as possible while still enjoying the frankly amazing scenery MSFS has to offer. It makes such a difference knowing that wherever I load up in MSFS it will look somewhat like the real world without needing fancy scenery addons. Makes exploring much more fun.
It’s a great hobby…great community and pretty much endless possibilities. I like how everyone can find their niche…tubeliners, GA, VATSIM, quirky addons, bushflying…I could go on.
For me, flight simming has always been a peaceful escape, and it’s even more so now with the scenery in MSFS. Additionally, it’s educational. I’m saving to get a pilot license and the sim is definitely helpful in that arena. The world in flight sims is also a place to build and place anything I want, anywhere I want. 3D modeling is a great hobby that goes very well with the sim…kinda’ like my own digital “Beetlejuice” model.
…and when I’m a passenger on a real life flight, everything that isn’t outside that window seems to cease to exist.
Flying was getting away from it all. The rubbish an tedium of daily life.
Getting a few mates and going on a flying holiday to outback Australia.
Landing on a road away from humanity and enjoying the serenity.
It was a sense of freedom and elation to just go.
It means defying natural order of things.
Which makes me a rebel.
While playing video games!
And helicopters… they make me a revolutionary!!!
Hobby.
I’m 27 and I remember the day that my brother introduced me MSFS 2004. Shortly after FSX got published, and spent most of my time with that. My friends were mocking actually, when I performed a flight from Munich to Los Angeles but I was loving it.
Now within MSFS, I got myself a Thrustmaster TCA Captain Pack Airbus Edition and made a powerful computer with RTX 3080. It’s my most favorite hobby, so I don’t avoid spending money on it, as long as my budget allows me to.
I loved it back in the day, still loving it, will probably love it until I die.
I stumbled into flight simulation when I bought a used Apple IIc computer in 1987 that had a bunch of floppy disks that included sublogic Flight Simulator 2. Monochrome green screen, simply line drawn graphics, frames advancing approximately one frame every two seconds…and it was still enough to hook me.
As computers advanced, Microsoft Flight Simulator stayed by my side along the journey. When Windows 95 came along so did Flight Simulator. By the time Flight Sumulator 98 came along, so did fps issues! From then on my flight simulation hobby also included trying to eek out extra frame rates on a budget.
I probably spent as much time reading, experimenting with code, etc. with FSX. A love/hate relationship with flight simming. But still my favorite hobby.
With the advent of MSFS of course that love/hate relationship has continued, but with more confidence in the possibilities of achieving that old Microsoft Flight Simulator motto---- “As Real As It Gets.” So, still hooked after all these years!
Today: i9 10900, 2tb ssd, rtx 2070 super, ch pro yoke & pedals, enjoying the frame rates and photogrammetry (when it’s not melting), mostly flying low and slow in Cessna 152.
Feeling free as a bird. A brief liberation from this unbearably selfish and superficial social order (it’s not the world that is wrong…).
i just like planes, okay?
I love aviation
so much I wanted to be a pilot
I tried 2 test flight in a Cessna 182 and 172 which I was able to takeoff and land no problem…
but it was both a bumpy day with a lot of turbulence
I ■■■■■■■ my pants lol
I’m back to simming only but fly every day in VR and absolutely love it !!
Wish I had the ■■■■■, I’m just too scared of heights and always think about how crazy that would be to crash… can’t make myself overcome it.
So I’m so glad MSFS exist because I loooooooove flying !
That’s what it means to me 