I'll disagree with that. I think an investment in a sim is a smart thing for a new pilot to do. Whether the 3-D flight physics are perfect or not aren't nearly as important as what the sim does teach you; like orientation/controls when flying toward yourself, and reflexive corrections of in flight mistakes before you could think about it. Both of which can save you more than $200.00 worth of planes

I've flown for years and I still use my sim to try out things and work out the kinks before I do it with something I have a thousand bucks in