I think ED has duped a lot of people into thinking that their modules are closer to the real thing than they really are. On rare occasions, I have seen pilots familiar with a particular aicraft, who have no affiliation with ED, more or less chuckle or scoff, suggesting that there is still a huge gap between what is and what people hope it is. I have seen many posters who ask about minute details and subtlties about various systems that don't in fact exist in the sim. That's the fooler game that ED has played, and it may be a component of the incompetence part. The lack of more fully developed missile system behavior as the most glaring example is unacceptable at this point, that's number one, two and three in development priority, and although I play BMS less frequently these days, you get a sense of a more realistic air to air environment, i.e. multiple hits to down an aircraft, correct geometry and range, missiles or guns, despite deficiencies in the graphics.

I disagree with you completely that it is incompetence that drives ED's ludicrous module selection, I think they know exactly what they are doing. They have a large community of, well I won't say puppets because that would be politically incorrect, but clones and zombies, who will accept just about anything, because they believe that everything that ED produces is nothing short of perfection, with everything modeled correctly down to the smallest detail. I understand the "fun" aspect, but because of that they can draw on a large number of people, and produce basically whatever they want, irrespective whether it is of any relevance, as well as many different aircraft with similar characteristics, with low development time and expense. In fact, those same people will go to great extents to defend them, like they're doing what they can, they will go bankrupt and other such nonsense. While it is correct that ED pays no attention to their customer base, your reasoning is incorrect, it is exactly because they know that customer base will accept just about anything, which is what makes it relevant and gives them the latitude to do so. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you sell 100,000 copies of something worldwide, at $50 a print, you're okay, to them it's just a money game. The irony is, had they taken the direction of spending more time enhancing existing modules for airplanes people really want, which are now years off at best if in fact they happen, and staying within the original concept behind LOMAC: Modern Air Combat, the sales numbers would probably have been about the same, and they may have attracted a larger customer base.