Thank you Oleg for your reply. Although I must say it doesn't really clarify the situation.
This is by far the strangest game release I've ever witnessed. The closer we are to the (shifting) release date, less information we get about the game and its future. News about the release of the game are full of mistakes - advertisements of features that have clearly been dropped, confusion about dates, confusion about the status
of the game - is it a stand alone or just an Il-2 addon...
It looks like captain is leaving the sinking ship, so it would be very nice if someone from the developer's team would clarify the situation a bit...