"Can the Real Flight Simulator give you a sense of how visible different aircraft color schemes are at a distance?"
The problem is a matter of contrast. Even a white plane can look black against the sky. I'd say that the average display cannot reproduce the contrast range
enough to really represent the problem. At times, things can be so bad that you end up moving the controls slightly just to see what relative orientation? is between you and the plane.
There are some yellow/orange tinted sunglasses that seem to help.