As has already been stated, I suspect the main plus point for this, is the fact that when any iteration of MS FS gets its patch, that is usually the greenlight for add-ons to start rolling off the production line (a similar thing is happening with the modders and SH4, with many holding off on the big mods until that baby gets patched up).
So it is indeed good news, oddly enough,the pre-patch FSX runs a lot better on my dual core laptop than it does on my single core P4 desktop, both of them have the same amount of RAM, but I suspect that its the fact that all other software that is running at the same time is probably on one core, with FSX getting a free and clear run on another core (although I haven't really checked this theory out I admit). The dual core laptop does seem to handle autogen scenery a lot better though.
Anyway, roll on PMDG 737 and 747 for FSX. That's what I'm waiting for! Those aeroplanes for FS9 were absolutely leagues ahead of any other add-on for FS. I know tootling about the sky in an airliner is boring to a lot of people, but I quite like it myself, as learning all the avionics systems in interesting, and its more grounded in reality, which is useful if you fly in real life.
In answer to the original question though, I have noticed FSX runs a bit better and loads a bit faster in patched form.
Chock