IO540,
I am well aware of Mr Seebohm and his merry men at EASA... also what they are trying to do to you N-Flyers ... and to us once they got that escape opportunity out of the way. Basically, I think EASA is out to eliminate GA as we know it, have some sport aviation like LSA/VLA left for local grass strips but primarily to get rid of just about anything else. He's got plenty of help by airport officials who decide that the light GA is the reason for all their problems and try to kick us out, such as LSZH is trying now with rising their landing fees by up to 800% for light planes.
As you know I got friends in the South East of Europe whose aviation world has all but disintegrated with the invasion of EASA. Yet, they do actually have a growth in light GA, with quite a few new airports opening, but horrendous problems meeting "requirements". One of the pilots there told me recently that the visions EASA seem to have are not unlike some he recalls from the communist days in Russia, where aviation was a purely state organized business, no private planes at all and an almighty, yet generally aviation friendly, authority to make or break pilots.
Good luck to your son, with you as his mentor he'll do just fine. He'd do best not to mention flight sim at all initially once he gets involved unless he sees that the FI goes for it. It's much more effective to keep quiet and then quietly explain the above average progress when the time comes
