M/S FSX is a goner
Jofm5, if you have never bothered with flight sims why are you posting in this thread? Sound like a bit of a troll to me.
With regard to M/S laying people off, they have done more, they have totally disbanded the development studio that handled FSX (and predecessors) and the official FSX site acknowledges that. No crumb of comfort is offered.
However, there are loads of 3rd party developers out there bringing out add-ons.
To answer OP, it depends what you want to do, do you want a game or to learn certain aspects of flying? As Keef says, FSX is OK for certain bits and X-Plane others.
If you want a game, I suggest IL2 1946, also has good flight models. It's a hard call between FSX & X-Plane for learning - I veer towards FSX.
For controls, buy a Cyborg Evo j/stick until you decide if you want to stick with it.