Here, case in point. Let's take your assertion that simulators are realistic. Well, can they simulate G-forces realistically? You could say 'yes, sure, the GTVA has artificial gravity.' Or, 'no, the artificial gravity units are too large for an individual simulator system.'
Because the GTVA has no gravitic weapons, I tend to think their form of artificial gravity is under technical limitations that would render this impractical.
However, I think Mobius is operating under a false conception here. The training missions you undertake in FS2 are shipboard simulator because they take place under very different circumstances from those in FS1.
FS1's training missions took a place in a system that was more or less secured, and the situation was not urgent. The GTA had just taken terrible pilot losses and the
Galatea was probably integrating a lot of rookies into her fightercraft complement, and a lot of new fightercraft too, so they were taking their time and had a lot of factory-new fighters that needed to be checked out and a lot of new pilots who needed to be checked out on them, as well as a group of veterans who needed a chance to gain confidence in their new wingmen. Simulators cannot impart confidence the way actual flight can, and
Galatea's large group of rookies needed that confidence...and possibly extra live-flight training considering the 14 years of war tends to wreck the pre-line-assignment training schedule.
FS2's training missions take place in a situation of some urgency; the
Aquitaine is on its way to lead a GTVA counterattack against the NTF. The destroyer has not been commited to combat recently and has a rate of pilot turnover more approximating peacetime; few rookies, mainly career pilots. The need of the moment is to fill out the small gaps in the aerospace group roster, not to integrate it; it already is integrated. The war has been going on for eighteen months, which means that even if training programs were accelerated the day it started Alpha 1 would still only be the graduate of the first or second class of accelerated training, and the need for further in-the-field training is not yet fully appreciated. Live flight training was thus both impractical and (thought to be?) unnecessary.
The GTVA, like any military organization since even crude simulation flying was possible, doubtless prefers real flight time to simulation. It simply wasn't going to happen in FS2 because of exterior factors.