Hello,
This sun´bject hits home with me too. I am over 60, and a real world pilot, although due to phycial constraints, I have not sat right seat for many years. But my love of flying is strong. In my early days, Simulators where nothing more then moving wire frame models, not much fun. But tech advanced, computers faster and here we are.
In my opinion, regardless of what Sim a person uses, Simulations give anyone a chance to experience things that otherwise they could not, without the risk of the real world. My drive to become a lic Piilot, was due to my life long dream of flying Commerical jets, well I did fly real planes but never made it to Jets, sadly. But Simulations changed that. Are we to old? I think not.