First off, I own a nexstar. I bought it as an ARF without the AFS. However, I made that decision based on the characteristics of the AFS versioned Nexstar on Real Flight G3 which exhibits the same behavior as the AFS on the real airplane.

Letting go of the sticks and having it level was one thing but the worst thing it teaches is to hold aileron at a constant point while banking. That action on an airplane not equipped with a Nexstar AFS will result in a continued roll when all the pilot wants to do is bank slightly for a turn. The transition for me, on the simulator wasn't all that tough but it was "different" and resulted in quite a few sim crashes.