DW:
The question then becomes, why do they insist on that - given that the realistic feedback is entirely artificial?
Come on, Dozy, you know the answer as well as anyone. Because it is entirely realistic. It does its job, it works.
As to your second point, I'm sure that's true.
DW:
(And whatever else you may think of Airbus, they were on the money - going from a distant third in terms of western airliner sales to being able to duke it out with Boeing for the crown on an annual basis.)
Great Jumping Jehosaphat! That is so disingenuous I forgot to sneer. MD merged into Boeing. That pretty much took care of the rest of the competition. (Though Boeing titularly bought-out MD, Boeing's board and leaders suddenly became largely MD, and that's when they began dropping lots of balls. Run by money wonks instead of engineer wonks.)
But I digress.