The simulator should be used for the purpose it was designed - and that is to teach pilots to fly a certain aircraft type.
Because the simulator is expensive to operate, the syllabus of training should only include realistic situations where actual hands-on flying is required - not hours on automatic pilot and heads down reading MEL's and checklists. By realistic I don't mean double and triple jeopardy events that are statistically insignificant and that in the simulator are more often and not used to brutalise the hapless crew. That is not training - that is idiocy.
Unfortunately the simulator is frequently used as a Shakespearian stage where mythical strange and exotic scenarios are dreamed up by equally Shakespearean directors and you get some poor bastard nailed to the wall before the aircraft leaves the ground. This is not training - but a sheer waste of valuable simulator time.
If CRM/LOFT acting is required as part of some zealot's syllabus, then use a proper classroom with a paper tiger on the wall and instant access to a coffee machine while the crew ponder the systems and the MEL. It is a damned sight cheaper, too.