Thanks for your insight.
Yup, I installed the South England demo area in XP11 and I like the immersion it provides. I wasn't expectng much in the way of differing ground textures given they mostly all share the same sources but the additional modelling of areas and airports is the main attraction, especially for someone more casual like myself. It's more the region that is driving this as my local airport is Edinburgh which Orbx provide a great version of. I'll probably start with GB North and Edinburgh then if liking that, grab the rest of the UK and main airports.
Don't get me wrong, I do like flying over the area in AF2 and was looking to try and create a respectable version of Edinburgh airport myself at some point if freetime allows but then I would be looking to do the same with the likes of London City, Cardiff etc. - all of which are available from Orbx just now.
I'm also not flying in VR at the moment. Something I will likely explore as the tech and sims mature as I don't have enough ime to justify the purchase at the moment.