I have gone the opposite route it seems, in that I had no idea about flight sim until after I passed my ppl
Since starting my imc rating however I have used flight sim alot to practice some of the approaches, which I have found really useful
I do them more to just go over in my head what I hope to do during my next lesson and to get familiar or more familiar with the procedure
I can see myself using flight sim to fly an approach to an airport that I intend to visit before I was to head off, again just for familiarization
Good luck with your ppl
Nick