Before I came back, I DLed the rival sims to check them out and settle on something, maybe something new, different.
Those sims literally did not last on my machine more then 15 minutes. I was sucked in by the modern graphics, like many do, but very quickly found the game-play didn't match the graphics, at all. And the payment plans were a bad hook. They get you into the realm of once you invest it's harder to leave that investment. I wouldn't want to leave $300 in planes, and then end up in that no escape cycle of buy more, for those who bit that hook. They are more about emptying your wallet than game-play.
The selling of other sims is an act of desperation from the experience of lameness "please come make it more exciting for me, worth my investment". If a sim is that great, you don't have time to spend time selling it where it should not be, you'd be spending that time in it. If it's that great their butt will follow. I didn't follow.
BTW, those who claim to not fly anymore for years, still here and selling other sims, still have AH installed (I know this as fact) and still fly AH under shades. Because if you knew they flew that would minimize their sales pitches that this is over. Which exposes them as dishonest brokers. This sim has a boat load of life still in it. We have return players and increasing numbers, their numbers in both rivals, are dropping. One is said to be "dead".
https://www.reddit.com/r/il2sturmovik/comments/15vmsns/il2_bos_multiplayer_is_dead/?rdt=48255OTOH
I think it's common that people tend to stick with what they first started with, whether it be software, games, car brands, breed of dogs. I will not have any other dog but a black lab.
For me, once I experienced the adrenaline of true multi-player, it's going to be very hard to beat. I'm not going to dial it down for somewhat better graphics. I find shooting drones, now sensationalized using the term AI, is about as exciting as taking out the garbage. I need that human brain as a rival. It's me against you.
I know of no other sims that provides true MP adrenaline for me. I looked, I tried, I did not find. Before I pushed the return button, I ventured the bbs as a lurker and saw many I remember still here, even as far back as AW, that has the mental feeling of home for a lost ghost. After what I have been through in life and survived, that is a well needed and deserved endorphin release. It's the nostalgia and MP game-play. Most of the best MP pilots are right here.
I left before AH3 release, so in my return it was a newer game.
I look at AW and AH as the trunk of the tree, the further up the tree the thinner the branches, the thinner the fun as they move away from the trunk of MP. Why would I want to play wannabes that can't seem to hit the mark?
