Unfortunately, I do not completely agree with the post. With the prices of DSLRs coming down, nowadays everyone has a DSLR. And most of them don't give a crap about photography and its internals.
While I agree that constant aperture lenses are substantially costly than their variable aperture counterparts, cameras like Canon 5D Mark III is coming with a 24-70 F/2.8L II lens as a kit.
I'm confused. Are you suggesting that the type of person who would find the camera simulator site useful is likely to be somebody who would own something like a Canon 5D Mark III? That's a $3,500 camera - body only. If you own that camera, I should hope you aren't visiting camera simulator sites, otherwise I suspect you're not going to be putting it to much good use :)
I have come across at least 2 people holding a 1 series camera and shooting in Auto or Programmed Auto modes. And I was severely disheartened.
I am only expecting people who actually have a DSLR with either a variable or constant speed lens but still shoot auto will come and be able to try their hands out on a same scene with similar type of lighting but different shutter speed aperture combinations and later on be motivated enough to try it out on their real camera.
Why would you be disheartened? A lot of photographers (including skilled amateurs and pros) shoot in P mode when the situation allows for it.
Prolific shooters usually know what to expect from their camera, so there's no need to experiment with settings all of the time, and if they see a P mode choice they don't like, they can program shift or switch to A/S/M mode.
I am not aware of your level of understanding of digital photography, so please pardon me. But as far as I understand, an average camera tries to reach the correct exposure by adding everything up to 18% grey. I am intentionally leaving the metering discussions out here for simplicity. So in case your frame contains too much light and shadows, your metering will be thrown off.
I come from an age when SLR cameras did not even have batteries, leave aside digital sensors. So probably it is hard wired into me that I need to use my eyes and brain and leave aside the cameras' when shooting.
You're about right with the 18% grey, but most skilled photographers do rely on the in-camera metering these days, regardless of which P/A/S mode they're using.
They may not use matrix metering (I definitely don't, I use center weighted, and I'm just a hobbyist) but you also have to remember the dynamic range of a full-frame RAW file is pretty good and that you can get good shadow/highlight recovery out of most situations.
When the photographer is chimping the image post-shot, if they see that the exposure is way off, you can still program-shift the settings in P-mode or use the EV dial to make adjustments and reshoot.
While I agree that constant aperture lenses are substantially costly than their variable aperture counterparts, cameras like Canon 5D Mark III is coming with a 24-70 F/2.8L II lens as a kit.