I think you can teach some skills through games. Coding in a REPL loop is great for learning certain types of problem solving since the feedback loop is so tight.
Chess is another good one, but the feedback loop is not nearly as tight.
the feedback loop point is exactly it. flight simulators work because every decision gets immediate feedback. most real life skill practice has the worst feedback loop of all, sometimes you don’t find out you negotiated badly until years later. that’s what we’re trying to compress