You need the LOVE of flight to give you the COMMITMENT to do it. The dreamers don't have that and will take the easy route, even if that costs more.
Well, yes... Some people seem to be born with the love to fly - I was, and as a child, watching the Thunderbirds and Joe 90, reinforced that. I could not not fly. Since I first could fly, I always have.
But for other people, some inspiration may be beneficial. Perhaps the people who are confident about their ability to safely fly a computer based simulator need some inspiration and encouragement to become confident that they can fly a real plane too. Perhaps when they experience the tactile and spatial sensations which only actual flight can provide.
My colleague reminded me that many of the "new" pilots are aiming at flying airliners = glass cockpit, which is catered to well by computer flight simulators. But, you just cannot simulate the gentle and satisfying sensation of a mainwheel brushing the grass just before touchdown, or feeling the aileron forces increase and decrease during an well controlled slip. Those are joy of flying feelings.
Feeling the plane fly, and knowing that you are doing it, is a very satisfying element of piloting, which in my opinion are being surrendered to
watching it fly on advanced displays - because they are installed. These advanced displays are easily modeled on computers, the
feeling of flying is not. I've flown glass cockpit aircraft, with synthetic vision, and AoA, and realized that I was not referencing them hours on end during flying, I was watching out the windshield, and feeling the controls. I figure that about 5% of my flying time is in aircraft equipped with an auto pilot, and less than 10% of that 5% was actually
using the autopilot. Yet 10% of my flying time is in aircraft, which if equipped with a nav system at all, had only one VOR reciever, with lots of those aircraft not even having an electrical system - and they were the most fun to fly!
Somehow, I hope, we can inspire new pilots with the joy of simple flying. They can go on to fancy aircraft later....