There are two sperate questions here that get conflated:
-
is the overall experience relatively close to flying a similar real world aircraft .
-
does a particular sim aircraft match the performance of the same make model and variant in real life
In terms of 1) I would say stick and rudder, not really, but the rest is pretty good. PROVIDING you are sticking to sane flight conditions. Whilst Immelmann’s and Aileron Rolls in a c172 might just happen to be realistic, it seems unlikely.
In terms of 2) I am not sure if it really matters if the C172 has a FM closer to a Piper Warrior so long as it is close for the aircraft type and does not fly like a Beechcraft Starship. So, unless you actually happen to fly the same aircraft in real life - the exact FM matching is just a matter of street cred and epeen. Basically you get a warm fuzzy feeling if you know the aircraft matches the real one and get to tell friends and family your Cessa is “just like a real one” .