Emphasizing pilot duties is a lot different than modeling *only* pilot duties. Read the thread's 1st post. The outside-the-aircraft features you so casually dismiss are important to a lot of the audience.
*** This gets lost in all the SIDS/STARS stuff: No Aerosoft A32X pilot *has to* program a single waypoint into the MCDU. Default flight-plans are the main idea. Or don't even bother w/ that if you don't want....
Yet if you *want* to add the SID/STAR waypoints, you can do that. The functionality to do that (manually) is there; and it was only later added to the feature list. Added several months in, not so many ago. And it was a significant undertaking. Read the older forums. So is there any way to see this *at all* in a more positive light?
I understand that to keep hearing an answer you don't like must be frustrating. (It must frustrate others to keep reading the same comments too, given your mark-downs.) But this SID/STAR thing has been beaten to death. Really. Is it *that* big of a deal, given the realities that have been mentioned? (That the route / procedures are often programmed manually, and that they're frequently abandoned because of ATC and the inherently dynamic flight environments?)
How often do you think an Airbus touches down at the time its loaded flightplan says it will?
So let's stop acting as if MCDU SID's/STAR's capabilities were the aircraft's main automation advances, some fundamental-to-flying feature you're being denied. No, the main automation advances were the protections, flight control laws, limits, etc... (Just TRY to stall it. Good luck!) But we are all still *piloting* an aircraft after all, right? Not just managing, as if it's a Windows7 upgrade. Many, many pilots feel strongly about automation over-dependence, and yes, even some Airbus pilots who use a lot of it. (I live w/in 15 miles of AOPA HQ. Highly varied crowd over there.) The sentiment is that if a pilot is *that* dependent upon strict procedure, it's a little dangerous, because the ability to adapt may become rusty. Thankfully, in reality, it's not all as strictly adhered to as some in these forums may say. Consider... if you've got an Airbus waiting in line 20 miles from KDCA, with some Boeings up there too, does the controller give the Airbus priority just because it's more automated and has flightplan procedures, fuel-economy, etc., strictly punched in? No way. They must all ultimately *fly*.
Please, just remember... you the customer may *still choose* to fly the aircraft as strictly or as loosely as you want. A wide range of people will be pleased. No, not everyone. But perhaps a little perspective is in order with this SID/STAR issue?