If I may I'd like to drag this discussion forward a few decades and make it a bit more fast jet orientated. I don't think anyone has touched on the benefit that simulators can provide in terms of mission rehersals or in sharpening some rarely used skills and techniques in advance of a particularly demanding or unusual sortie.
Both Typhoon and JSF (needs an name) simulation "suites" include in their specification the ability to a: deploy a sim to the war zone and b: allow realistic mission rehersal (including terrain, sensor and threat databases).
Another aspect I would like to put forward is the observation that simulators are just like any other computor/calculator - if you put rubbish in you get rubbish out. It is a sad fact the the majority of sim instructors are no longer on the cutting edge, nice RO post to see out the autumn years (I have no problem with that at all). Most squadron pilots would do everything in their power to avoid a tour as a sim instructor. But it is exactly that level of current knowledge (of operations not the mechanical idiodsycracies of the aircraft) that is required to maintain an adequate level of realism to the event.
Back to nostalgia, WIWOL I did a spell in the sim after my first crash!! I was the only member of the staff who had actually flown the jet! I did some digging around the console and found the sim could do far more than anyone ever knew.
Simulators have the potential to add value, but can never replace the real thing
T