Corsair. I'm glad someone understands the point I'm making. As you correctly state, even some experienced pilots coming off turboprops can find the conversion to jet aircraft difficult, while others find it a relatively staightforward process (for a professional pilot). But I've yet to see anyone in the sim finding it easy on their first attempt in the jet. (And I say again these are pro pilots.) Then when it comes to line training, the learning process starts again, as you know. And I can assure everyone that when you're in the real aircraft line training a new guy, you've really got to watch in those first couple of days. There are just so many potential traps.
Yes, I think PC flightsims are very advanced these days. I enjoy using them myself. Yes, they can be useful to practice procedural instrument flying. Yes, they could be useful to a limited extent in rehearsing a route. Yes, they are fun. Are they like the real thing? No. That's why the airlines have to spend tens of millions on their flightsims! I think Andrew M gets it right - they are two different things.
Let me use another analogy - I'm pretty dam hot round Monaco in my Playstation. How would this transfer to the real world? Well, I'd know the track. But as for anything else, the real-life physics would obviously blow my mind and I'd be useless compared to the actual flesh and blood F1 driver. Also, when you look at the in-car footage of the real thing - it looks slow!! Which it patently isn't.
Let me restate - I've trained and checked a lot of professional pilots in the sim and aircraft. I've flown PC based flightsims. There is little comparison between the PC and the real thing. The physical sensation of all that metal, the physical dimensions of the instrument layout, the cockpit layout itself, the control forces (or even lack of in the airbus causes its own problems) wind and weather and your life being on the line if you screw up, does make a huge difference. (And I'm only talking about raw flying here, not actually being totally on top of the whole operation.)