In my opinion, a simulator is basically a launch monitor. It does a poor job of simulating the short game and putting. Putting is all feel and I don't know how you can create that on a simulator. From a number of videos I have seen on You Tube, setting it to auto putt is quite common. What about a shot from a greenside bunker using a simulator. Do you open up your clubface and your stance?
Autoputt is common because the majority of simulators just can't handle putting well enough. However many golfers trivialize putting because it can make their score look bad, so they turn it off. We see golfers often try to make a round sound better than it was by saying things like "shot 2 over with three 3 putts", like the 2 over was actually better than that. It wasn't - it was 2 over. We even see this IRL in a certain country known for vanity handicaps, where generous gimmes are taken and cards submitted.
Certain launch monitors however handle putting and/or short game very well - even SkyTrak. They're not perfect, but they are believable and it just wouldn't feel like golf without them. It's very rare any of the hundreds of sim players in OGT ask about autoputting and we were quite glad when Flightscope and TM users were removed, as they did autoputt.
Bunkers - yeah, I open clubface and stance to get some loft and stopping power. It's not the same of course, but we're never going to replicate real conditions - even bunkers at different courses in different conditions vary radically. I played two out of puddle in there on the weekend as that was preferable to dropping. But I get in one or two bunkers a round IRL so I can handle that. Putting and chipping though is nearly half the game.
Many putt on sim via calculation - they calculate the effective length due to elevation, have putting charts at different stimps to give them a speed they have to putt. I agree, that's not putting by feel.
Not for me - I roam around the putt like one would IRL and get a feel for the shot. I do take into account the indicated elevation as that's hard to see, but don't care about the indicated length. I putt remarkably well when I do it, and poorly when I don't. Sim putting can be done by feel.