The game is going to give you the basics on what the controls do but the game totally lacks the physical feedback you get in real life. Let’s take keeping the ball centered as an example. In real life you can be looking in any direction and get some feedback through the seat to know if you are coordinated or not. In the game, you have to be looking at you instruments to know if the ball is centered.
The game has no peripheral vision, no inner ear, no neck or eye movement, no g forces, or even sun tracking through warmth or shadow. I find I often get “lost” when maneuvering and watching an attacker near my six without those physical inputs.
In the game you don’t have to worry about traffic separation, ATC communications, weather, insurance, or how you are going to pay for the gas and maintenance. The game really doesn’t compare at all to real life. Thinking about it, I would say the flight portion of the game compares to flying a plane in real life the same way as driving a jeep in the game compares to driving a jeep in real life.