Precisely right. Knowing the aircraft, airport, ie. wx, pressure altitude, ground effect, spoiler efficiencies if equipped, sink rate at throttle approaching idle etc & so much more in the realm of airmanship. To me that seems well duplicated in AF2 with aircraft types I've flown. Next most important factor - frame rate. So having flown XP, AF and real for years, AF2 feels more like reality not even considering the huge VR frame rate advantage in AF2. Realistic SIDs & STARSs, traffic, ATC, dynamic wx etc & just maybe there'd be no question as to which is maximum reality.
I know there isn’t that much drag. I even researched on YouTube if people had to same problem and people did. My favorite YouTuber Jeff favignano even said it had too much drag and he’s been playing X-Plane 11 for years and now MCFS.