Hi itismike,
The reason for not streaming liveatc is because it won't match what is actually happening in-sim. For example, if you are lined up in-sim at KLVK, there's not much point in hearing the live ATC clear someone else to land if there isn't actually and aircraft there in-sim. So actually matching the airport you are currently flying at isn't really that much better than the existing ATC chatter function we have - it provides some background noise but not much more.
However, there are two interested development in this area:
1) Durk (I think) has been improving the AI system so that the AI aircraft interact with controllers. This is most apparent on the ground, as they will ask for clearance to taxi etc. At the moment this is displayed as text, a bit like the MP chat.
2) We now have text-to-speech built into FG itself to provide ATIS information.
Your post has made me think that we should look at enhancing the text-to-speech function, so that the pilots of the AI aircraft actually speak when asking for clearance. When I get the chance I'll see how difficult this would actually be. Thanks for bringing this up and inspiring me!
-Stuart