The fa realistic arena was comparable to ah, that's it. With the views and physics in the other fa arenas, to call fa a sim is a big stretch. I had fun there, but it compares more to turd thunder.
A more realistic sim environment does not make for a better game. There's a balance, and in my opinion FA had the perfect balance.
Along the same lines, to call this game a sim is a stretch. It's a game, and their are more nuanced gamey tactics here than were ever in FA. The aspects of flight that "hardcore sims" try to capture more often then not are modeled less than perfectly, and simply end up being aspects of the game that can be exploited due to these flaws (e.g. torque). This is why the Intermediate arena in FA was the most popular, even more so than Arcade. It captured the essence of dogfighting, without the superficial restrictions that serve only to fulfill a hardcore sim enthusiast's fantasies. Likewise, this is why War Thunder continues to succeed and outperform AH, despite being an inferior sim experience.
Regardless, it never ceases to amaze me when people point out that "their" game is supposedly more realistic than another game, when said player is mediocre at best in both.