Having originally self taught myself to fly the smaller 450 sized collective pitch heli first (no sim), it is possible to learn in that manner, just seriously hard - how I only ever had two crashes on that heli is beyond me. I now have a H9 bluenose waiting till my 40th in Jan (and a 50 sized nitro heli that I have owned for 2 years now) - as I now want to fly both 'types' of platforms (also have a training aircraft)
Still, my view is that the 6ch C.P heli is/was a crash course in how to use all control surfaces, and that they did make the initial learning to fly a plane simpler with all the cross over experience my thumbs had.
That said, if you don't think you want to fly a heli, there is no reason to get one, just learn to fly with a set goal to get to what level and type of flying it is that your looking to move into - ie (IMO) don't jump around from scale to/or 3D and back and forth etc, and just make sure each progression step you take is well thought out and relates to that end goal.
As with that P51 I have, while my trainer is being used to gain what I want from it, it will soon be sold to allow for a 55" FMS P51, as this is a much more forgiving version of my big scale flying 65" one, and will fill in the gaps I need to learn that my high wing trainer won't (tail dragging takeoff and landing, flap handling, retract use) - they also bounce better than my current mustang too when/if it all goes wrong!