that is a great way of saying it "dumbed down" some people may find it offensive but I certainly dont...
it is what it is....I do have a very little experience flying a real plane...I flew a super decathlon it was very similar to what we do here, my guess is that plane was made to be easy to use...very different then the WW2 fighters...
and I do agree there should be a full blown realism arena....from start up procedures to having to keep the plane trimmed... no auto pilot....to having to turn on super charger or whatever they had to do...make it so you have to do, even though it is only added button pushes...no icons(yes I know that icons make up for far viewing distance but they over compensate for close quarter combat...making nearly imposable to lose sight...)
that would be cool, and I would fly there once in a while....but honestly I think even though lots of people say they want this, I think that arena would have very few people actually in it.

I know zero about building a flight sim, but have flown in WT and CBS a good bit and having talked to some of those people, if there was some way to in=corperate WT graphics and CBS's pilot requirements, into AH, there is no telling how many customers AH would then have! But, Dale is a mighty smart man, so I guess there would be more to it than I realize.
There is a vast number of real life pilots out there, who don't play in AH, but maybe after next update, we can attract some of the them into the game.
One thing I would like to see, but never will I suppose, is to increase the icon range to 8k and the icon to disappear when with in 1/2k of another country aircraft. 10 to 15 Knot wind at the surface at all times, CV groups with detachable cruisers for surprise attacks, damage on HQ be increased to 74,000 lbs, GV "spawn" hangar the only one you could use for resupply to another base, if it goes down, you couldn't resupply with any of the other three hangars!
Oh, well, my rant for the day I guess!