Regarding the fidelity of sims to real life, recall the B767 sim in regard to the Lauda Air 767 crash in Thailand. Initially the pilots were criticised for not acting more quickly after the deployment of the thrust reverser, as the re-enactment in the Boeing sim indicated they had plenty of time to act and recover the situation. NTSB suspected all was not right, and did a lot of number-crunching and, to cut a long story short, it turned out in the end that the pilots actually only had five seconds after being thrown this totally unexpected and untrained for situation.
Think that after that B got an certification exemption on having to prove that accidental in-flight thrust-reverser deployment on the 777 was recoverable.