I suppose I'm one of those folks lost in 1999, which was pretty much the end of the 'golden age' of simulations for the most part. This was the first 'high fidelity' sim I've bought since Il-2, excluding Black Shark's predecessor, LOMAC/Flaming Cliffs. And yes, it is a very niche product. Almost a 'niche within a niche' as it's a Russian helicopter circa the 80's being simulated.
Overall, simulations became decreasingly profitable largely because of their niche status and complexity. That, and complexity coupled with the industry's trend to throw quality assurance out the window and 'release first, patch later' affected complex games and simulations more than any other genre. This simulation largely came about because the Kamov Flight Bureau partnered with them to create a training simulation for them. Not being tethered to a publisher wanting to push out product also helped immensely.
Regarding gameplay and long-term viability I tend to agree with the designer's beliefs that missions need a 'human touch' to mission design which a more simplistic dynamic campaign wouldn't be able to accomplish. Falcon 4 is a different story (which will likely remain the most realized dynamic campaign model in a flight sim ever), still being at the top of it's game thanks to it's dedicated community, though that's a story in and of itself. In comparison, the dynamic campaign system of Falcon was built first and took something like three years to develop while they ended up starting from scratch the graphics engine halfway through. That simply cannot happen today, well, excluding Duke Nukem Forever
The other side of that, however, is that the longevity of the game rests with the mission builders. While the campaign which comes with it is pretty large, with a fair amount of randomness and variation in it, the long term prospects lie on a mission building community, which is too early to say whether that will pan out. The mission scripting language is more robust than it's predecessor, though it pales in comparison to the abilities in Operation Flashpoint/Armed Assault.
Work is being done on expanding mission scripting functions and ground logic AI. A common complaint right now is that we have an excellent flight and weapons simulation but much less so a combat simulator, which also goes for it's predecessor, LOMAC/Flaming Cliffs. To date, no flight combat simulation has substantively touched on ground force AI which responds to the player using real-life tactics perhaps outside of Longbow 2. But, work continues.
An important thing to note is that they did the Ka-50 because they had detailed information on it from a direct pipeline to the designers. In January, the Russian military formally announced they wouldn't pick up the order past the six they have and focus on the Ka-52 and Mi-28.
The helicopter modeled, the Ka-50, is largely unchanged for the most part from the 1982 prototype. It's a daytime attack helicopter with no facilities outside of night vision goggles for night flight and the unusual lack of a RWR (radar warning receiver). It is a fascinating look into Eastern design and Russian tactics and doctrine.
Don't let that take away from what is inarguably the highest fidelity flight model available for a combat helicopter on the PC, though I'm sure much can be said about flight models in X-Plane or even back to Longbow 2.
The game is scalable, as any flight sim should, so it's open from casual players on up. I would strongly recommend a HOTAS setup for mapping vital functions. I've mapped out every button and POV nearly three times over. It's true what Apache pilots would say, "six months flying the helicopter, six months fighting the helicopter, and another six months to put it all together". At maximum realism, it will take hundreds of actual flight hours to put it all together. I've spent over 200, and I still make simple mistakes. It can be an incredible challenge should you max out realism, but it has it's own rewards. I also happen to become increasingly uncoordinated in my age, so it's an extra hurdle to 'organically' get it together. I can't help but think of that music bumper sticker that said, "I used to be hardcore."
I suppose I ranted a good bit there and maybe didn't really answer any questions, but simulations are still my bread and butter, and I was surprised anyone here brought it up.
One more thing is that the next module in the series will involve the A-10C. This simulation tends to be 'extremely niche' being a single-seat Russian combat helicopter in extremely limited production with circa-80's technology, which obviously doesn't capture the interest of your Western world 'glass cockpit' modern day fighters. It's hoped that the A-10C will capture the broader sim market, and maybe extend further to the casual gamer.
The link is in Russian, but shows the first available shots of the avionics systems and cockpit in-game. Again, they have direct access from the manufacturer on this, so there's almost no guesswork, you're getting as close as one can get to a study simulation of the real deal.
DCS - Digital Combat Simulator