I have almost same performace i had with 1.2.6 (25-35) offline (15-30) online.
Now i can easly see that with mirrors on i have a 6/7 FPS loss.
Edit : have no stutters ^^
Steam is really nice. I have tons of games downloaded with steam system, but for DCS with all the modules, addons and updates, it's far more simple just use the DCS site.
Yeah i agree with you, we need better missions and more realistic campaigns. Maybe you could use your knowledge in this matter and build more realistic war scenarios. The mission editor is very flexible.