I am taking my check ride in a couple weeks, and am absolutely fastidious about my sim setup. I only sim-fly the c172 because that’s what I’m training in, and have built a VR & motion platform around that exact plane. I have the Honeycomb and it feels very nice (and received high praise from my CFI), so unless your budget is unlimited, and you just want the absolute closest thing (Bruner, from my research) the Honeycomb is pretty darned sweet.
The one glaring limitation is it’s length of throw, which is a fraction of the real life plane’s. As such I don’t practice soft field takeoffs. In flight, it’s good enough.
