Simulations ??

This week at Syracuse University we are learning about Simulations. It's really not a new idea though since at some times or the other most of us have used illustrations of real life situations to help explain their operations. While some people believe that simulations are good teaching aids since they give a representation of the real world , others believe that they are not true representations because they tend to oversimplify reality!
Lets consider the case of a commercial flight simulation program in which the play pilot sits in his armchair and runs the program on his PC. A real pilot may not think this program really captures everything that happens in a real flight on a real airplane because he knows much more about the real situation. So I ask myself who is right here? Is there a real reality?
I guess everything depends on on what was the intended purpose of the simulation, and to say that simulations oversimplify situations is to presume that there is some level of representation that these simulations must achieve. Then, failing to reach this level it would be considered too simple.
The thing is Simulations do not necessarily promise to show what is real.