Being a novice at XP having only started my adventure in the latter part of last year, but built upon a strong MSFS foundation dating back to the early 1980s, I'd like to make some comments regarding the above. These are just my observations and opinions based on my thoughts and experience.
First, and this is first because the single most important aspect of simming is FPS. It always has been the capital three letters regardless of platform and hopefully one day it will be a faded tech memory. Laminar wants 60fps on desktops? I want 60fps on my desktop. I would be happy with 40fps. However at some points, I settle for 20fps and get crushed occasionally at less than 10. As Mr. jsperl succinctly points out, you can get to 60fps right now by shutting off everything. That's a Microsoft solution. I'm not complaining, but merely stating there is a lot of work ahead to get there and Laminar cannot expect everyone to swap out for new hardware after every update.
Second, after over 30 years of desktop flying, I have concluded that the focus of a flight simulator program should not be on how many trees dot the landscape, not the number of buildings in a city, not the aeronautical perfection of built-in flight models, nor even whether it's deer or elk scampering across the runway. The focus should be on the flight experience which directly ties into the first item. Don't waste limited resources on developing things like autogen, AI, airports, etc., that others have done once, twice, or three times over. Leave the gravy to the outside developers and encourage them to understand XP is the future and MSFS is dead.
Finally, Flight simmers are a dedicated, specialized and limited band of diverse individuals with as many priorities. Laminar has to provide them with a platform right now that will handle the candy crush. XP11 is a jump forward, but many facets still leave much to be desired. Whatever can be done to achieve an acceptable balance between FPS and realism on a desktop should be a priority. As for things like VR, well, let's put it this way: Imagine you are piloting a real time flight in your big Boeing from Paris to Moscow. Are you really going to wear that headset the entire time? I don't even like to wear an audio headset for very long. Again, don't waste resources on tiny niches.
Just my two cents. Your mileage may vary.
Lynx
XP10.51/XP11/xEnviro
i7-6700K @ 4.50GHz/32GB/GTX970/TM Warthog+CH Pedals+Saitek Multi&Wheel/Windows 10/AOPA-WAHS-Aviation Fanatic & Flight Sim Aficionado
For the short time I did manage to get this model to function after all of the installation requirements that go way beyond anything else and I mean way beyond, I couldn't get my mind off that rainbow panel in my face. I don't care if it is realistic and you don't care that my father worked his entire career at PPG. After having it crash out again because I installed something Seneca V didn't like, I tried to make nice with Carenado. They weren't interested in my troubles so I recommend that unless you enjoy spending an inordinate amount of time on installation of a rather mediocre twin engine GA prop and then are OK with staring at a Rainbow Brite panel and a big blue PPG sticker, spend your XP bux elsewhere.