does the simulator manage the rate of descent you would experience in a real incident?
It could, briefly. Then it'll hit the floor.
A sim is a pretty useful tool. You should really consider it as a procedural trainer. For practicing things like vital actions, SOPs, autoflight and other procedures it is a vital tool, where else would you do it these days?!
For replicating what you would see on the instruments it is pretty much spot on and very useful. Like stalling, you don't get the physical sensations but you will get the indications. I should clarify that and say that you will get the nose down movement but that's about it.
However, the sim tends to be let down with things like the correlation of movement and the visuals. There
always seems to be a slight lag in one or the other which can lead to a bit of disorientation (sim sickness). Visual flying is a pain because of this lag and it makes it harder, not impossible, to fly accurately visually.
It is also missing vital clues. For example, an explosive depressurisation in an aeroplane is a bit of a shock, there are physical sensations from ear pain and farting that you won't get in the sim, the misting associated with the drop of pressure isn't there. All you really get is a prerecorded pfffft and the "up arrow" on the pressurisation panel.
You don't get things like shadow and light moving across the flight deck as you manuever.
All these things lend themselves to better situational awareness.
Does all that really matter? Well, IMO, not really. But it just goes to show that there are some things a sim can't do.