It has long been a problem that people believe that if the sim can do it the real aircraft can do it - it just isn't true unless the sim has been very accurately modelled with data from the real aircraft it the specific manoeuvre.
And, unless on NVG, the best option for a night or IMC auto is a constant attitude without flare.
Crab - on your first point there has to be some correlation between the helicopter and the FSTD. In the case of the EC225 OEM Datapack, having done extensive training in both helicopter and FSTD for pilots with vastly differing experience profiles, I am very confident that what we were teaching in the FSTD will work well in the helicopter.
On your second point...and I like this very much. Having had my own EC225 FSTD to play with, I did exactly as you suggest. Tried my best to make Constant Attitude EOLs similar to the technique we learned in the Army. It did not work at all. In my frustration I spoke with the OEM Test Pilot, mainly to complain about the FSTD and lack of fidelity in this respect. He admonished me firmly) for trying to fly profiles
as a staff Instructor, not described in the FM. He went further to say that, the farther away you are from the FM recommended parameters at the flare point, your life expectancy diminishes exponentially. He explained, that in the case of large helicopters, the is very little "Fat" in the profiles. It has to be flown accurately whether we like it or not.