I'm not in the Alpha testing unfortunately (I haven't applied, I don't have enough time nor ressources for that
), but I watch closely the various feedbacks from Alpha testers.
A good summary would be:
- MSFS looks very good, way better than other sims for now (XP may catch up soon...)
- The weather depiction in MSFS is unmatched.
- The flight model in MSFS is supposed to be very good, but in reality at the moment, it's full of bugs and various inaccuracies, which doesn't make superior in any way to P3D or XPlane. That may change soon though, since it's an Alpha and it's constantly evolving
- The main problem comes from the SDK and some special format of this sim (WASM, WebAssembly) which, according to people who have more technical knowledge than me, makes it impossible for addons to use external modules (DLLs). As we know, most realistic aircrafts nowadays in FSX and P3D use external modules to overcome everything the simulator is not able to handle properly. If such modules cannot exist in MSFS, than means it might be impossible to get realistic aircraft systems too.
- There are also still some concerns regarding the possibility for 3rd party FREEWARE addons developers to create addons for MSFS
- There are also many concerns regarding the pricing policy of MSFS.
Final line is: yes MSFS is very promising and looks awesome, but at this precise moment, nobody knows if MSFS can become as realistic as P3D or XPlane, and nobody knows what kind of addons we will be able to get.
Maybe there will be no restrictions, addon devs can create anything, including high-realism planes, and then we can say byebye to P3D and FSX.
Maybe there will be many restrictions, no freeware content, no complex airplanes, and MSFS can go say hello to MS Flight in the virtual trash bin of the history of simulators
NOBODY knows yet.
EDIT: I forgot to tell about the total lack of helicopters at this point, as well as total lack of support for TrackIR or VR helmets