I think that a large chunk of the price is spent on including the dummy controllers that some of them use. They could substantially lower the price by including regular software copy protection and include a simpler dongle that uses the end users transmitter. This would greatly reduce the appeared value of the FS to the end user.
The G3 controller is not a cheapo thing. It's expertly made by Futaba.
I also see little point in buying xpacks just to get "new" planes. If my sim has helis and planes in it now, I see little point in spending $40.00 more to get some more skinned planes just for the eye candy. These are RC flight simulators not really games (although they are fun like games at times), so xpacks usually consist of little more than extra eye candy in things like different planes, weather effects and flying fields.
umm, yea, G3's Expansion pack's have plenty of cool planes in them though. Since you really don't want a sim, I would think that you wouldn't waste your money on it.
50%