Well, i think it will be just like the old days: people slowly started collecting missions, skins and campaigns in community repositories and now we have websites like mission4today with thousands of resources.
I think the same thing will happen with CoD too, just that on top of missions and skinning there will also be script libraries.
Just out of curiosity, are the higher FMB functions you mention new features or not? I mean, does the new FMB have the tools to do what the old one did without scripting and the scripts are something higher up the list, or do we need scripts to do things we could do with menus in the old FMB? Mind you, i'm talking about
just the FMB, not external tools like FBDj and the like, the latter fall into the category of community created tools.
If the new FMB has the tools to do whatever the old one did (even if a couple of menus/functions have been moved around a bit), then i think there's no reason to be unhappy. Correct me if i'm wong, but things like limiting flyable aircraft by type are not stock FMB functions in IL2 either and came with external community add-ons, we waited for them to come along just like we are waiting for the scripts today.
If previously point-and-click functions have been moved to scripting, then i can understand the point. If not and scripting is for entirely new things then i can't sympathize with the viewpoint: it would be like expecting to be able to use something without spending some time to work with it just because it's there, similar to thinking i should be able to run the game maxed out no matter what or be good with every single aircraft i fly. I'm not passing judgement on you guys, i'm just saying how it feels to me personally.
To clarify, even though i would like the same outcome i think i also have to maintain reasonable expectations in terms of features and usability gained over time, it's how we get there that differs in my mind and not if we need to get there
If the "higher functions" are things that didn't exist altogether in the previous FMB then complexity is to be expected until someone (devs or community) comes up with a tool that automates the process somewhat, which is similar to how a lot of the better features happened with the old series too. I've been with IL2 since 2001 and the first year and a half things were very similar to CoD in many regards, i distinctly remember spending most of my time on European Air War because IL2 was full of quirks and nuances i didn't get at the time. After a while, people experimented and came up with useful knowledge and new content and i made the switch to full time IL2.