I really do sympathize. I think what we're going to see is that updates from 3 to 4 to 5 to... whatever, are going to be new charges from devs. Captain Sim plays its cards close to its vest. Other devs are a bit looser with info and have spoken of the huge number of changes needed just to make things work in 5.0.

Is CS making best use of what's available now with 5.0? Let's say "no." Somebody said PBR doesn't matter because it's added to everything now. There are indeed improvements, but you can do still more with it, as we've seen, so I wouldn't say it's a non-issue. One dev has dropped custom paints on vehicles in 5.0. Some airports are getting non-PBR versions made available because it really hurts performance. So I do think there are significant issues in the jump.

Did they take the opportunity to fix all the known issues? Let's say "no" to that, too. I don't think those answers would be unfair.

Is the L1011 a bad product? I didn't think so in FSX, and don't in P3D--mainly because it's pretty much the same  ;) On the other hand when I fire up the L1011, I don't get a splash screen demanding that I reduce my settings down to 4xMSAA. (I think 4xSSAA is the minimum to keep a sharp VC.) Does that happen with a certain shiny new airplane? Let's say, "Yes."

Granted, I've only had to buy it twice.

If you follow the discussions elsewhere, we have a major dev with 50 employees telling P3D users (I'm recalling the New York headline about President Ford) to DROP DEAD more or less, because there's "zero revenue" to be had in P3D. We NEED P3D devs, and I'm willing to cut CS some slack because they're at least supporting us. I'm taking note of who is and who isn't and even if anything worth flying comes to MSFS (a year from now at the earliest) I'll remember who my friends are and who threw me under the bus. (That goes for scenery now, too.)

I'm not criticizing anyone's buying decisions. I'm blessed to be able to buy what I want. I get that. It helps make up for getting old  ;) But if it becomes a discussion of policy, I think there's a bigger picture that matters to me. I hope we see the whole catalog updated to 5.0 first, then they show some love to those wonderful older products and yeah, charge for an "enhanced version" if it is significantly better.