It turns out that the MSFS2020 controller profiles for the X52 has a hardware GUID ID and product ID that does NOT match those of my X52 for keymapping detection. That asside, I still manged to get it working eventully with some file tweaks.
Its funny that the latest version of the X52_HOTAS_圆4_8_0_213_0.exe driver package only seems to contain the 8.0.116.0 drivers rather than the 8.0.213.0 drivers that the professional version driver package does. So - I went through the same process as you all and messed about with drivers and several attempts at unplugging and replugging at different stages. So I had the same issue as all of you with a standard old X52 (not pro).
