Ig Over: Simulation, on a room-size pricey box or a silly little one, can clearly help arrival skills for "controlled" environments like, say, big flat wide open airports with scads of lights marking the useful bits. A basic premise of airports is that they are prepared and ready for aircraft, and even the weird ones have the "look" to them, so that finding a solid flat stretch on an airport comes fairly easily if you can see.
The "naturally" part surely does not apply to randomly selected pieces of roadway, day or night. The only advantage to doing it in real darkness is that you can't see all the things you're about to hit.
Pretty fine smuggler's moon right now.... maybe it was shining over ZA that night. Many a damsel has prospered in dim light, but that is more probably more due to their skill and this to his luck.
If 'God was watching' (per article) and favorably disposed, she could have tossed in 10-15 kts headwind to make it a walk in an empty 206.