I do both physical and virtual cockpit simultaneously, sorta.I'm of the opinion that for a game like Elite, VR is better than a physical cockpit. On the other hand, I think that for a game like Flight Simulator, a physical cockpit would be better than VR, especially if you spend most of your time at altitude. There's something about touching real knobs, buttons, and switches that VR just can't replicate.
Someday when true 3D light field displays are perfected, we'll be able to have the best of both worlds!