IIRC, the only thing 'toned down' in the early beta stages were the bugs, jodgi.
What was happening was, some planes like the P-51D or the Spitfire, was insanely difficult to take off. It'd ground loop like crazy. People had to make super-fine micro adjustments with throttle and rudder, aileron, every second to get their plane to stroll straight and not ground loop.
Initially, everyone thought that this was representative of the new FM AH2 was going to show us. Some were dumbfounded, others liked it.
However, HT told us that it was due to a bug of some invisible wing surface was keep hitting the ground, and shortly after it was adjusted. Now, SOME PEOPLE did claim that it was a gameplay concession, and people whined too much and that's why it was changed.
To tellyas the truth, I did like the difficulty and challenge of having to slowly apply throttle and be really careful at takeoff and landings. It added a bit of more intensity to everything, although people who want to jumpstart into action would probably not understand... Somewhere along the middle point of the that bug, and how it is modelled now, would be probably nice.
