I felt the same as you, but frankly with the upcoming F-14 I figured that I will eventually buy the NTTR and go DCS World 2.x anyway, since these modules takes forever to arrive on Steam. And when the Tomcat comes out I want to fly it ASAP.
Besides NTTR I only own FC3 bought on Steam. I own most pre-DCS:W releases though - Flanker 2.0 and 2.5, LOMAC, Flaming Cliffs, Flaming Cliffs 2, Black Shark.
Regarding the clouds the spinning is normal and is evident in all the flight sims that use "pseudo-volumetric" clouds (they are not truly volumetric as they are built from many sprites, which when observed from above or below will tend to spin as they always face the observer). But that is not the issue - I already found other people complaining about the clouds on ED forums, so it's common problem I guess in 2.0.5.
I already have some interesting video from my last flight which I reveal soon ...