Speaking from my experience (a lot of DCS, 10s of hours in VTOL VR, couple hours in MSFS2020, all in VR), if you have HOTAS controllers, it feels natural to use them, without seeing them.
Actually, my biggest grip with VTOL VR is the fact that the developer is hellbent on using vr controllers instead of joystick and throttle, which even with the best tracking (valve index) is miles away from precision of a good hotas
Cool! My interest in flight sims is more GA than military so I don’t think HOTAS is as appropriate there but I can definitely see that military flight sims are the killer VR app.
Could something like Apple Vision Pro work in an AR capacity so I can still see my physical controls?
I don't know about apple but I've seen some videos of people using pass trough in Meta 3 - here is a guy that has built an A-10C cockpit at home https://youtu.be/KwOKr8QrJA4
