This very closely mirrors what I discovered when I made Flightle[1].
I made it in anger when I played a sidescrolling flight "simulator" on my phone in which the plane didn't behave anything like a plane! I figured "how hard can it be" and started learning a lot about how planes fly. It turned out there was a level of abstraction that was just right. Too unrealistic felt static and unsatisfying. Too realistic was difficult to calibrate for fun gameplay.
I made it in anger when I played a sidescrolling flight "simulator" on my phone in which the plane didn't behave anything like a plane! I figured "how hard can it be" and started learning a lot about how planes fly. It turned out there was a level of abstraction that was just right. Too unrealistic felt static and unsatisfying. Too realistic was difficult to calibrate for fun gameplay.
[1]: https://xkqr.org/flightle/