I guess they figure MMOs are the way to go economically . . . though realistically alot of them fold and collapse in the first months or year. And while the potential for profit is higher, there is, I believe the potential for bigger loss as well (since you have to buy servers, tech support, etc.).
Personally, I my interest in IL-2 (or any other flight sim) was directly tied to the extent that it light me recreate the career of a WWII fighter/dive bomber pilot. I sincerely doubt I'd ever bother with an MMO, and I sincerely doubt that a hardcore (realism) MMO will make any money when competing against World of Planes and those feeling burned from CloD are unlikely to be early adopters. Not to mention, Battleground Europe already has realistic flight simulation in a combined ops MMO for people that want it. To me it seems a dead end, at least for western markets.