Well Von, everyone is entitled to his opinion, but your last paragraph is a little unfair. Why?
Because of your suggestion that no amount of hacking or modding can make this into a sim!
It was able to be done with EAW and Red Baron,(and others) and the latter especially was awful at first.
Lets look at what you said

"Graphics - well, you've seen the screenshots and movies. On the whole the graphics are very attractive. Some of the terrain is almost photo realistic. There are lots of ground features. Hills, trees, buildings etc are well implemented (though the blocks of forest less so). However, there is a strange fish eye lens effect (even though the view isn't very wide angle). Aircraft are nicely modelled from what I've seen so far. A variety of colour schemes (from realistic to fantasy eg blue with racing stripes) are available for each plane."

I dispute a fish eye effect. Using trackIR
I found it no differenet from any other sim, which can use trackir. Red Baron, which I suppose is the simmest of WW1 sims, cannot!.
The colour schemes -skins- you can choose do have some garish choices. But then you needn't use them. You can stick to sim approved ;\) ones!

So, apart from the disputed fish eye, I see nothing here that is not sim-like, yes?

" Frame rates are consistently very high."

Is this only to be mentioned briefly? The highest FPS of any sim there is? Again, in Red Baron, more than one plane takes you to single figure too often.

"Weather - looks marvellous, with banks of clouds, blue skies, rain and snow, fog, all changing in the course of a mission. However, from what I've seen, these are all background visual effects - you can't get into or above the clouds, and weather seems to have no effect other than sometimes limiting visibility (for the player)."

What sim, apart from F.B and BOB gets you into the clouds? What WW1 sim?. What effect therefore do you expect other than limiting vis.?

"This was an instant action fight between me in an Eindecker and an AI oppoenent in some unspecified biplane, and I proceeded to follow him through a series of five or more consecutive vertical loops. "

Why did you choose to do that, and then make a criticism of it.? I certainly don't do that when I fight in Instant Action, and neither does the AI.. If I climb I will lose speed with the engine finally spluttering, then I begin to drop randomly left or right, then the engine whines as it gets turned by the prop until I rev up and pull out? If this is unsim -like,what should a sim do different? Are you sure you have not left an arcade setting on?
I agree there's no torque, but apart from that..
.
"AI - AI aircraft are agressive - they get behind you, fire accurately and shoot you down given half a chance. They are also tricky to shoot down, manoeuvring vigorously and using the vertical a lot (see comments on flight model above). It is very hard to stay behind an opponent, partly because all aircraft can turn 180 degrees in about 2 seconds and 20 yards horizontal distance (see comments on flight model above)."

I agree with this, except the last sentence. The only times I had this happen was when the opponent was a dridecker- I figure the've over modelled the agility aspect. Against other models, if you can keep them in view, you can get behind them. They lead you a merry dance, but my experience is a 50 -50 success rate. This is too hard for a sim then? It should be easier?
Those rockets are a complete arcade thing- the sooner they are rid of the better- You don't think a patch or modder could achieve that? ( if I read your last para !)

"Damage modelling - aircraft (especially the player's) show a good range of visible damage, with buckled spars and ripped canvas. However, damage is clearly hit point based and basically attritional - pour machine gun fire into an opponent and his strength (indicated by a strength bar above his plane, unless you turn this off) slowly reduces........."

This is what would happen with WW1 aircraft being peppered by machine guns bullets! Remember, in Blue Max where the CO rages at Bruno for leading them into a dogfight, the state of bruno's plane when it landed?. Ripped canvas doesn't make for efficient lift ! Strength bar?? Press letter "I" and its gone. Again, why didn't you turn these arcade features off?

"Views ..."

Same as all sims...yes? Except padlock of course. Don't want that. None of that newbie nonsense. So this is more simmy than the sims ?? .. well,well. ;\)

"Campaign - the campaign is a progression of scripted 'missions'"......

The campaign is total arcade nonsense having no place in a sim. I would have hoped that a review to ascertain its sim credentials would have ignored this campaign. You must have known from the manual that it made no pretence to be like other sims' campaigns , as understood by hardcore simmers.Because it can be ignored completely, especially now that access to all planes no longer relies on flying the campaign at all. ( see other posts re the "cheat" available )
To fairly judge whether this game has sim aspirations or not, I ask all fliers to judge only on Instant Action with arcade features turned off. This equates roughly to FB QMB situation.

"Instant action (offline) - choose a plane (from those 'unlocked' in the campaign, initially a DH2 or an Eindecker)....."

You're right, those damn rockets have no place in a sim. A patch could take them out. When that is done, then, how would the dogfight be compared to say Red Baron.?
I don't care for re-spawning myself, but it is a part of multiplay, is it not?
But no doubt, for offline,this would go when the missions got written ( patch or modders)

" (in fact I got into the habit, after loosing off all my rockets, of crashing so that I could respawn with a fresh load). "

Really trying to fly this like a sim, eh? Von. \:D Don't worry I don't mind you having a bit of fun, !

"But I seriously doubt whether any amount of patching, hacking or modding could turn it into a 'serious' flight sim, and anyone buying it with that in mind might well end up disappointed. Buy it for what it is, or pass, is my advice. "

Come on now, after flying most of the (one ) night with arcade features obviously not all turned off, it is a strong summary to make and a little unfair in view of the fact that you are talking about whether patches , modding et al can or cannot make this into a sim.
Look what was done with EAW and Red Baron and F4 etc from what came in the box.
Oh, did you mention that it runs straight out the box, no stutters, CTD etc. ( The only bug I found was that the player shouts to the opponent as if he was being shot at by a team mate )

This is not a sim yet - but I'm sure, folks, that it can be if patched or modded. (It can be dogfighted (sic!) at the moment, if arcade turned off in Instant Action.)
All I ask when making your assessment, if you risk your $20 or so, is to ignore the Campaign and use the Instant Action in cockpit view, with all arcade features turned off.

cheers


Mankind's problem is not failing to know the difference between right and wrong; - It is failing to know the difference between different and wrong