I reckon it saved me 10x that. Excellent for procedure training.
In another era I recommended to my new student pilots they first spend three or four hours (over several days) undergoing dual instruction in a synthetic trainer on basic flying manoeuvres (ie straight and level, climbing and varying airspeeds and even radio calls. We used a former Ansett D4 Link Trainer owned by Keith Hants at Essendon.
Keith was a former RAAF Lancaster pilot with a fund of good stories. The student pilots learning to fly the Link Trainer had little choice but to listen to Keith's war stories as they tried to concentrate on my instruction on medium level turns and even looking outside the D4 Link to check all clear before turning. They quickly learned to multi-task listening to Keith with one ear and me with the other ear. Lots of laughs too.
The point being when they afterwards first stepped into a Cessna 152 at Essendon, they were already familiar with aeronautical terminology and what each ancillary control did. Their hours to first solo came quite quickly compared with others who did not have initial Link training. I am convinced it is cost effective to start on a synthetic trainer for the first few hours before flying a real aircraft.