Does ASE or ASX (the legacy product which is 10 bucks cheaper than ASE) help this situation at all? This is a dense cloud config with fog pretty much to the ground at KDYT. The fog butts up against the hillside of Duluth - it looks pretty bad in FSX and always has. Does either of these two programs do anything different?

That's the FSX haze layer. ASE handles it quite well. You should give it a go. Vic

HelloASE handles to haze problem by installing a special texture, here is a screenshot of the option