There's a world of difference between a software company with a staff of dozens whose JOB it is to release software and Joe Blow living in his mother's basement creating planes.

Maybe we are trying to say value for money? Dont think anyone should gripe at paying some ££'s for decentware  , but for me if i am gonna payout the cost of the sim again for a couple of planes, i EXPECT them to be much better than the defaults. The  "Joe Blow living in his mother's basement creating planes" (thx Hyperion!) can hardly command the outrageous sums that are being bandied about for some addons at the moment - not least because he doesnt have the costs, and maybe, reputation that some of the software houses have (methinks i am gonna regret saying that  ) . Thats why the software houses charge what they do - i have just got Lago's Venice - it is indescribable, but worth every penny (or Euro). They made an excellent piece of software. If they sell a bad product, the staff lose jobs, they are homeless and so on and so forth - its the livelihood of many people. If the Joe Blow releases a bad bit of software, they get a bit of critisism in forums like this, no one buys the product and mum still gives them the pocket money; then they maybe think of something else to flog...
Little in life is free, and we have been spoilt for choice as Nexus said earlier; FS2004 really has evolved into something else, the more we learn and use it, the more we want from it, and so the more we start looking for that which it cannot offer - ultimately, we will want more and more... i think that  programmers and consumers alike only want what they deserve and expect.. just me two ha'pennys worth, mind...

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The whole theory of yours bursts when you say that you consider X just as good as Y. The market will notice that and hence choose the feeware program.

A payware product has to be superior to their freeware counterparts, or else we will not pay. Why should we??

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I don't care too much for expansion packs either. Take The Sims, for example. It was a great game and then they began releasing so many expansion packs that it was impossible to keep up. They were thirty bucks a piece and it got to a point where there were so many expansion packs that it got rediculous.

However, those expansion packs had tremendous upgrades in them, whereas a Flightsim plane is a Flightsim plane. I think 20-30 dollars for a simulated airplane is a little steep, considering it doesn't always totally change your FS experience. Payware for FS has come to a point that it rediculous because there is so much of it to download and pay for. On top of all that, you risk having your credit card number stolen by hackers and whatnot. Payware isn't a bad concept, when it is used properly. Some payware companies (no names will be mentioned) make horrible planes and charge money for them. You download them and pay 10-20 dollars for them, load them into FS and find a disappointing aircraft.

I'm not saying payware is wrong, but don't you think these companies are going a tad bit overboard with it?