What I've most enjoyed about using my simulator is that I can be at the home office, waiting at the airport, on the plane, at the hotel
well, I find that not being able to see the forrest sometimes makes me see the tree.

Another problem (for some of us) is that those of us under Linux are kind of toast. I'm not sure if there's any ICE that directly supports Linux and the recent trend of laptops not having serial ports is just making matters worse.
Never wanted to touch PC workings I know virtually nothing about Linux, but if can Linux can do "DOS mode", there are a few.

My main beef with simulators are the many times you hear "It works in the simulator it's not my fault" ---
True, that's bad. I think that's more of a misuse or misunderstanding of how to use a simulator than a negative aspect of simulators themselves. They are useful for the purpose they serve, but you should not expect the program you simulated will behave identical on real hardware--although it often will.
That is the issue, The simulator can be a valuable tool in the hands of a professional that has developed the skepticism, but usually is the first choice of an amateur that has not developed such. Just look at the "simulator ok, thing does not work" post of today.

It may be that I come across to strong in my opinion here; however, so many times when saying "I do not think you should" someone will do it and, when asked, reply "you did not say do not". I do believe, and maybe I am wrong, that posts should be written to the amateur with a thought "the professional knows how to read this".

Erik