HC, the comment to which I said "rubbish" was not about what the pilot does in the simulator, it was about an alleged basic flaw in theoretical knowledge and training. Read my post again and look at the relevant quote from PG. I stand by that response. If what he says is true, there is a basic flaw in the way that pilots are trained in the USA.
That apart, from my own time instructing on rotary wing and fixed wing, both in the air and in the sim (I ran an RAF helicopter simulator project some twenty years ago), what a pilot knows and what he does on a particular aircraft type may not be quite the same thing - at least, not until he's had a few goes at it. That's what training is actually for - to get used to the best way to fly a particular aircraft type, not to see how bad they are when they begin the training session!