I picked up on one thing right away when I started reading. Having to do homework in order to turn a game from being a frustrating and annoying one into a fun game is in itself a major flaw with a computer game. Sim or no sim that is what it is.
Massive amounts of people just either a)won't be willing to put that time in or b)can't put that amount of time into researching for themselves.
It is clear to me now that this game is now a hardcore sim, maybe some find it easy from the go but that is rare.
Those are just unrelated points, the thread you made is a good one.