Everything Jedi said, +1 Everything Oden said, +1 Everything Johnny Red said, +1
I saw that mafia campaign thing for the P-51 and it just makes me laugh and cry. All that effort to make some uber-awesome simulation of that iconic aircraft, and that's the best we can do with it?
ED could fill a monster hole that exists, straddling the border area between Strike Fighters 2 and DCS A-10 (for example). Other than Falcon 4, which is some weird hybrid of the two, there is no game that provides the graphics and multiplayer gameplay that DCS could provide if they'd stop this nonsense.
FC3 with clickable cockpits. Do that, start cranking out some era-appropriate jets faster, and we can be done here.
The core assumption you guys are making is that cutting down on non critical systems, presumably like oxygen and whatnot, will cut down development time enough to properly flesh out DCS.
Now I don't think any of us have any proof one way or the other, but given the fact that FC 3 still doesn't have AFMs for 2 of its 6 aircraft after 3 years says, to me at least, that your assumption may not be correct. Aviodev and VEAO's flight model troubles contend it further.
Personally, my biggest gripe with DCS is the Caucasus map. Trees with no collision and poor terrain poly count genuinely reduce the value of helicopter modules and CA. ED said they'd update it, but no details as to what that update will actually do. Never mind when it will be here.
