writes:

A single take-off at the controls, even as a student pilot, trumps all
the time I've EVER spent pretending to fly planes in any of three
simulators I've tried. I would happily trade that simulator time
against real flight time.

We all have our priorities. I have my doubts about you actually maintaining
this opinion if it were actually to be applied to reality. It's easy to make
such sweeping statements when you know that they'll never be implemented in
the real world.

If you openly admit you don't want to be a pilot, and you also don't
want to spend any time at all as a student pilot -- then why are you
posting on a piloting forum?

Because I like flight simulation.

Besides, I don't necessarily _not_ want to be a pilot; it's just inaccessible
and impratical at this time, and it is not a driving force in my life.
Perhaps if I had a great deal of time and money I might try my hand at
piloting, although there are extreme constraints on how far one can go as an
actual pilot. Here in France, for example, I'd be forever limited to flying
very tiny airplanes from one dusty little uncontrolled field to another, as
virtually nothing else is allowed or economically feasible.