I think the technique of simulation is a powerful one, and I think it fits in with what I was saying. It's one more mental prosthesis, an externalized and formalized incarnation of what our brains do already. We form a mental model of exterior reality, observe how closely it matches exterior reality, and make adjustments--our success building a high-fidelity model measures how much we're in touch with reality.

Your point about rising above the limits posed by Heisenberg is an interesting one. A simulation is a simplification, and when you're dealing with the quantum it's useful to reduce the number of signals and boost their amplitude to get a clear result. Some things can't be measured directly, but can be studied through proxy models.

Many things can't be measured directly, but have to be measured through side-effects or consequences. When the probability wave function collapses into one result, you are then in a position to infer the other possible outcomes; and you can't do that until you collapse the wave function and destroy the original distribution of possible outcomes. When scientists do that kind of experiment they create a kind of simulation, because all of the possible results except one is unreal and hypothetical.

So I think what I'm leading up to is that a simulation is another way of perceiving reality, through indirection. Simulation is not an optional new-fangled invention, it's something fundamental already wired into our brains.