In my (limited) experience, the inaccuracies are just due to amateur pilots/ATC not getting phraseology spot on and being more forgiving than the real world. Obviously, VATSIM doesn't have the users to populate the server with true to life Traffic and ATC at all locations. This lets you make your callouts slower than what you would see in real life.

ATC in real life can be surprisingly forgiving, too, depending on a lot of things (weather, their workload, if there's a lot of local flight training, and so on). There are a lot of things they will of course insist on though, like reading back hold short instructions and assigned runways. If you call up for routine VFR flight following on a not-busy day and accidentally forget some bit of info like your altitude, they'll just ask for it no big deal.

Yeah I think a lot of people forget that students talk on the radio on their first flight. Controllers in real life are used to people talking too casually and not knowing the right phrases. You can also say "student pilot" after saying your first line if you want them to speak slower

Steve Thorne, aka "Flight Chops", had a couple of videos a few years back with an ATC guy on helping pilots not be so intimidated:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg90PF4mWJs

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnxb8RTdl6Y

As a bonus video, see also this crawl-thru of a B-29:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XakK81edKFA

> I enjoy flight sims, but I'm not sure I want to actually get a license.

This was me in late 2021 / early 2022.

I urge you to get a discovery flight! I did, and now I'm almost finished with my instrument rating. One of the best decisions I've ever made in my life. I love flying so much - more than I ever could have imagined.

Your wallet won't like it though.

If you use reddit I'd recommend lurking r/flying. Great community of pilots ranging from students to hobby pilots to 747 captains.