Oh, nice, VTOL VR style cockpit hand controls, I didn't think they'd go that far. Any word on if it's single player and what not? That'd be great. It really makes no sense to make a spin off if it's still going to be f2pvp2w focused like before so they limit the player base and maintain/update two games.
Here's how the controls work in VTOL VR so you know what to expect on that front (not visually obviously, this is an indie game though if you get past this you will see some cool effects like the AR helmet stuff viewing through your cockpit with the external cameras of the plane filling in blanks etc.).
Skim around this vid after the beginning, first it has some flying and chill dogfight, then a mission with ground and air targets at ~9:20, then a stealth night mission escaping hostile territory full of sam sites, gunboats and air patrols (a bit of a reenactment of Firefox with Clint Eastwood) at ~24:00+
Now sure physical controls may be better for basic flight (I'd say it's a wash for standard gamepads with their tiny wiggle sticks that don't have much room for movement but a physical hotas/stick is definitive) but as you see with VR controls you manipulate all kinds of other awesome stuff on top.
Granted WW2 planes don't have all this fancy shit (but still plenty non stick controls to manipulate with your hands) but if it's like the main War Thunder game it will eventually get much more modern aircraft too (and if it's campaign based unlike War Thunder then I guess a sequel will have them).