I'm right there with you, I considered building my own home simulator cockpit for a while, but gave up due to ROI. They're so expensive and time consuming even for a low fidelity one, and I'd need to build a new one for every plane I want to fly.

If you're comfortable with and willing to spend the money on VR, I was able to buy a peripheral that allows interaction with 3D cockpits in simulators such as DCS. It's not as good as a real simulator, but it's an awesome experience at less than 10% the price.