Been ‘simming since Commodore 64/Atari days.
You and I are in the same boat. I am currently on a low budget so I am using MSFS 2020 on a laptop which uses a Ryzen 5 2500u with a 25 watt TDP 16GBs of RAM and only the integrated Radeon Vega 8 Graphics adapter. I get a warning every time that my computer does not meet the minimum requirement. I run it at 1600x900 with mostly low performance settings. I get around 19fps.
I had to do a lot of tweaking to keep my system from crashing. I actually run it on a very clean Windows 11 “to go” installation on an NVME SSD in a USB 3 enclosure. Supposedly the 2500u is not capable of running Windows 11 either. I have tweaked the system a bit. I increased the paging file (virtual memory) on the NVME SSD from “managed by Windows” to 16GB. I also had to go back to earlier AMD “minimal drivers”. The latest and greatest are sometimes not the best choice on a weak system. I start the program in a 640x480 windowed box. After it starts up I switch to the higher resolution. Before I go back to the main menu to shut things down, I switch back to the 640x480 resolution.
The program wouldn't start at all after I changed some graphics options while using it. I found a free program called, “FS2020 - UserCfg Editor” on flightsim.to to change the settings to low performance settings while the Flight Simulator is not running. The program was a life saver. After getting things running again I have seen how much I can get away with knowing that I can revive the installation if things start crashing again. The results have been quite satisfactory. 19 FPS may not be good enough for many action games, but it is fine in MSFS 2020. I sometimes turn things down for certain configurations or activities.
The community is awesome, there are so many talented folks who help to make it the way it is. I never got into the design side myself...except for creating AI flight plans(from old pdf timetables), but PMDG, LEVELD767, ACTIVESKY, TDS/freeware developers...the list of dedicated "hobbyists" goes on and on.
I recently bought a VR set for use with MSFS...the immersion is fantastic, but after 30 minutes or so, nausea set in(bummer...but may give it another shot).
Not as "addicted" as I once was...but still enjoy 'simming.