This is something that comes up often as an example, usually mentioned by someone who doesn't actually play the game.
Simulators are different. You do not gain competitive advantage by buying DLC. You get some more content, and usually they're high quality, historically accurate and come with nice documentation (checklists, etc).
No-one would have the time to play with all the DLC in train simulator. There is hours worth of playing in each. Heck, it took me an hour just to figure out how to get a steam locomotive out of the rail yard.
Flight simulators and racing sims (iRacing) are similar. You can expect to spend hours of time with a new aircraft or race car. In racing, you race against others with the same or similar car, so you gain no advantage.
I can warmly recommend trying out Train Simulator or Trainz. It's fun and relaxing gameplay.
The sad thing is that Pay2Win is coming to triple A games like Need for Speed Payday, Forza 7, Star Wars B2. These completely wrong trend deserves all the outcry that happens right now. If EA and MS try to destroy video games, it's just stupid, their greed will scare the real players away.
Exactly. I have no real problem with a company charging for cosmetic stuff (unless it's limited-time-only, which hurts addicts) but pay2win makes the games pointless.