>The upside is automation is making it go smoother and be less burdensome, because simulated testing truly is high enough fidelity
I agree to an extent, but there's also a risk of simulation breeding a false sense of security even when simulations are conducted well. The investigation of the CST-100 "anomalous" test flight had 21 findings related to software simulations and testing, some related to lack of fidelity. Not that fidelity wasn't possible, but it has some overtones of the Ariane 5 software issue in that there was a lack of integration testing within the different software components.
I agree, but the problem with this case was that simulations led to complacency about not thinking they needed integration tests. That's much rarely in the hardware domain. It's not really meant to be a critique of simulations but rather how we use them.
I agree to an extent, but there's also a risk of simulation breeding a false sense of security even when simulations are conducted well. The investigation of the CST-100 "anomalous" test flight had 21 findings related to software simulations and testing, some related to lack of fidelity. Not that fidelity wasn't possible, but it has some overtones of the Ariane 5 software issue in that there was a lack of integration testing within the different software components.