I've been playing the PC IL-2 since the first version & all of these things you have mentioned are great. However they are trying to sell the game to a wider audience. Also there just aren't enough buttons on a console controller to cover everything in the sim. Plus the graphics in this game are incredible and probably take most of the CPU's power to process. I think they did a good job with the hardware (which is 4 years+ old by console standards) that they had available.
This game is going to be a lot of fun (albeit arcadey). It is also cheap, and a good distraction untill the new PC version comes out. I'm probably going to have to put a good $500 into my PC to be able to play the next version. That is if it ever materializes (it's been set back more times than an Oklahoman in first grade
)