Watching your circuit operate is much like watching a debugger step through your code. It may be a hundred times slower, but it gives you the assurance that the circuit will actually work. The educational potential of any simulation program is huge. Technical schools are embracing these products as alternatives to time-consuming wiring and senseless destruction of innocent semiconductors. The programs themselves make no claim to being educational, but there's a world of hands-on learning in store every time you fire one up.
Simulation software can save innocent semiconductors from senseless destruction.