Ok, so just gave it a whirl, in VR. High/Low altitude in the Hornet.
TD/DR; So, out of the box it looks and performs good; the “World” is lifeless as usual, requiring much human intervention to resolve. I’m at the point I’d rather have more places to fly (and still waiting for maps of areas that played heavily in the 2nd half of the 20th century!) than aircraft modules - Phantom being the exception!. All things considered, I’m content with it.
Not sure what all the complaining is about (witness the CasmoTV YT video). Perhaps a little over-saturation on some colors (trees)? A few clicks using OVR/Toolkit made it all look ‘better’, to me. But I’ve never been to this part of the world. And this is a sparsely populated place. Just the way it seems to be.
Reminded me of flying around the Aleutian peninsula (Alaska) in a Beaver (as a passenger): mostly tundra (a girl behind every tree over 6 feet tall 
as we used to say there); zillion small lakes/ponds, interspersed with some really big lakes; too many rivers/creeks to count; the occasional volcano; etc.
Performance-wise same as any other map (starting on the ramp at the Falklands, through the mountains, etc). Note this box is dedicated to DCS (sims) and I regularly clean house to keep the bloat away.
I think Syria remains my fav, not that it is better per se. Is kind of apples to oranges. I like both.
Is it as pretty as FS2020? Don’t know as I don’t play that anymore. For a Combat flight sim it’s fine to me.
Coming up with a non-contrived scenario (other than the single obvious one) for an air war will be a trick; all I could think of was how ripe it is for littoral conflicts, and perhaps a CV -vs- CV set-to.
And I’m sure those that favor the Air Quake game-play will really dig it (it has its appeal): more Mountain Goat -V- Mountain Goat air combat groveling.