So Even though it's clear the FS9 version of FSDT's LAX wont be as good as FSX, it will still be very good. And the FS9 Athens by FT is exactly the quality us FS9ners expect.
You are missing the point, my comparison was made just to explain why KLAX for FSX is unique, and why it will be difficult to convert to FS9.
If we simply took out bump mapping and specular mapping, and convert it to FS9, the whole scenery will look like the roofs or the doors which I've labeled "FS9 style". Without even mentioning that, we raised the number of polygons so much, that we don't even know if the FS9 compiler will take them, or even if the FS9 exporter will export, and even if they would, we don't even know how FS9 would react with so many polygons throwed at it, it's really a shot in the dark.
It's the look and feel of FSX I don't like. It just feels like a game to me. Even the real life motion simulators such as CAE don't have gaphics and textures like FSX. They are more similar to FS9. And yes, I have flown in them with video to prove it.
FSX itself doesn't have any "game" look, unless you are referring to the style of the default scenery but, who use default scenery anyways ? The engine is more CAPABLE, the final look depends what developers do with it, you can obtain a gamey look or not, depending what the developer does, not how the sim is done.
About professional FFS scenery, they might be more or less outdated, but just because their update cycles are way slower than consumer hardware, you don't upgrade such expensive hardware just to get better textures, but they DO get better graphic eventually.
When I used to fly FFS at Alitalia, in late 90's, MS Flight sim 98 already used 3DFX accelerated and filtered textures, while the MD80 FFS used technology from the 80's without *any* texture mapping, with less than 256-colors flat polygons, but the newest A321 sim was already 2-3 generations better and had textures so, in a few years even professional FFS *will* look like FSX now, that wouldn't make them any less professional then they are because, as I've said, it's not what the engine can do that makes it gamey, it's how it's being used by those that creates the scenery.
