The self-centering may seem to make a perfect simulator landing harder to do, but when you're flying a plane that's a couple hundred yards away (and your eyes don't automatically move with the plane as they migh on the simulator), it's very helpful to know how to ceter your controls. Depending on the plane's attitude, there may be no way to visually tell whether the plane is turning or not and very little to tell you what direction it's going in... that is not a situation in which you want to be unable to know whether you're giving it right, left, or nothing.