I have a very good grasp on the Xbox and currently have an X as my main console. I have answers to a lot of the questions above.

There are already flight sticks on the market if that's your thing. A quick Amazon search brought up a Thrustmaster for Xbox and PC for $80. That's a trusted and well supported brand that goes back a long way.

"I've read the XBox isn't ideal for playing Blu Rays vs a dedicated Blu Ray player" - this is due to most people only having game controllers to interface with it. They turn themselves off after a few minutes of inactivity so when you want to do something you have to turn the controller back on. They also don't have the familiar buttons of a dvd/tv remote. You can fix this a number of ways including an official media remote.

A few people might say to save money by buying an S instead of the X if you don't have a 4k tv (I don't know if your tv is 4k) but I'll bet this game will benefit greatly from the extra computing power the X will get you. Microsoft doesn't screw around with first party games on their hardware and this is a big title. When you buy the game I'd highly recommend you get the digital version. It's so nice to not have to put a disk in when you just want to play something on a whim.

There's also a new console coming about a year from now but don't worry about that. This means the X could see some price drops. Microsoft has also been on a mission to make sure that the games you have will work on upcoming hardware. Sometimes even better which is the whole story behind the X. This is good news in case you end up loving it and decide to upgrade.

If you have any other questions just ask!