At the end of the day the simple line saids it all "you can't beat the real thing"
Even if Ship Simulator was flat out amazing, 3D Graphics, true to life ship dynamics, controls which are spot on. It still wouldn't feel the same as to what it is in real life. I recently went fishing down at Padstow and the different is just unbelieverable.
Feeling every wave go under your boat, hear the sound of the waves crashing against the cliffs at the entry point to the river which takes you down to Padstow, to smell the fresh salty sea air is something which no game can mimic.
At the end of it all, Ship Simulator does what it promises to do, put the player/user/person in a ship and allow them to get from point A to point B, whatever the player does during the middle is up to them.
While I think at some point VSTEP will add a simple autopilot into the simulator (you set waypoints, press U (for example) and then the ship follows the waypoints) will be added to the game, most people do the same whether it be FSX or Ship Simulator and that is, start the flight/free roam, do the tricky part, takeoff/undock and then go away and leave the simulator to do the boring middle part which is the flight/sail, then the user comes back and does the ending land/dock.
It really just comes down to how much the user/player/person expects their to be during the middle part between A and B, some want a little amount to do, some want a full on simulator. In real shipping a LOT of maths is needed.
But then do I really want to do a lot of maths? No, if I wanted to do that I would of brought a Maths learning game. I just want to sail and explore and I feel many people just want to do the same.
My advice to anyone who wants to get as "REAL" as possible, is to simply go and do the real thing, it doesn't cost much to go on a fishing trip or to rent a boat out nowdays and everything is there, 100% of the package.
Cheers.