Flying Penguin

Well, I started off with an X-52 Pro, using the slider on the throttle for Condition, so you definitely *can* fly it with two throttle levers (or one if you are prepared to use mouse for Condition), but now I've got a yoke and a three axis Saitek.  There is no Prop control so if you have a three axis Saitek, you have one free for flaps or trim, again providing you are ok with using the mouse for startup.  In flight you very rarely move Throttle or Condition on one side only, so one quadrant is fine for that.
 
If you want to start doing emergency proceedures, you probably do need a second quadrant (if only to have one Throttle and one Condition per engine, with two spare for flaps or trim), but it's otherwise perfectly flyable with one.
 
As for flying it "as a first officer", I suspect you'll be flying from the Captain's seat, if only to have ready access to the HGS (Pro only) or the icing controls. You might just need to hold your nose about the throttle position in the VC.

Honestly, I think we're over-thinking this, it's less about political and image, more about strengthening the commercial offering.
 
Having a community around P3D means there is a growing market for 3rd party addons.  Add ons provide functionality that LM can (quickly and relatively cheaply) leverage in commercial projects without anyone (LM especially) having to take the risk of developing "Natty bit of scenery X" or "Real weather generator Y" for P3D without having identified a commercial customer already.  
 
Not every add-on will be applicable to a corporate environment, but those that are strengthen LM's offering to their commercial clients.  Look at the banners on the front page, two Orbx addons (Norway and Palm Springs, FlyTampa's Fly Copenhagen, Majestic's Q400, CS 777, A2A Cherokee and the 2.5 announcement which references the IRIS F-22.  They are clearly pushing add ons as part of the core offering, and don't underestimate the impact of shiny shiny on key decision makers....
 
LM provide the engine and the expertise to customise and implement at scale, their developer network provides the shiny shiny that LM don't want to take on the risk of developing, the personal customers provide funding to their developer network (through add on purchases) which reduces their risk associated with producing and maintaining for P3D.
 
The lack of clarity about licences is here to stay (due to the terms of the licence for ESP), and I doubt personal customers provide enough direct revenue for LM to notice, but the ecosystem they support strengthens the LM commercial offering, the positive side for us is that we get access to something that would otherwise be behind closed doors.