It is not my intent to get into an argument about it.
I think learning traditional flight planning is valuable to people who have a serious interest in aviation whether real or simulated.
I also do not think it is good practice for people new to aviation to get bogged down in these routings and numbers. There is a lot more too it, and believing it’s just a sky full of numbers can chase people away. But that position may or may not apply to everyone. I don’t know who here is new, and who is not.
I’m not telling you or anyone else how to run your sim. It’s your dollar, do with it as you please.
There is so much more to effective flight planning then popping an origin and destination into a website and getting a bunch of numbers tossed back at you. In my personal opinion it sucks the joy out of light aircraft flight to plan everything in this way. But again, that is just my opinion. Simbrief is a great tool, I’m not trying to say otherwise.
But I’m the kind of geek who gets real joy out of sitting down with a map, and working out a routing that takes me where interesting things are, rather than just along the airways. The airway system isn’t designed to do that, its is designed to efficiently and safely move people around. When I’m simulating that type of mission, simbrief is my go-to.
But if I’m looking for a joyus burger run in something like a PA28, no thanks.