Clark writes:

Second, don't pretend to know what you need learn before getting in an
airplane. As I said before, talk to flight instructors and trust their
guidance in the matter. The instructors I know say that simulation before
flying is a detriment. Why would you assume to know better?????

An instructor is one person. Why listen to just one person when you can
consult a wealth of literature written by experts? If all the experts say one
thing, and the instructor says another, in all probability the instructor is
wrong.

It's important to remain objective. Trust if you must, but verify.

Simulators have a place but it is not in pre-flight training. Here's a
simple example: another student and I started our training at the same
time. He'd been through a university instrument training course and I was
off the street. I took my private pilot check ride two weeks after he
soloed. We had the same instructor and flew about the same number of hours
per week. My instructor mentioned that the other guy spent a long time
learning to look out the window rather than at the gauges.

So what's the connection with simulation?