well, there is another perspective of that mock knobs and "dead" procedures. im ordinary guy, never touched the sky in real life (except i logged some time as my butt slowly decended on parachute from 3000ft once, and i flied tu-134 and tu-154 when i was a child and M.Gorbachev did perestroyka ) And i never dreamed to be a pilot. I love my job and what im doing now, but sometimes i need rest. It happens that i got into aviation via old fs5.1, fs98, films, reading, - so flying jurassic jet in FSX - works for me
"Dig into" all aspects of being a pilot is huge part of fun. Ground flight planning, fuel calculation, "mock" procedures, - more i do, deeper i get involved into it, = more fun, better rest. I know that i dont need all that knobs and tables to fly it but they a very atmospheric nuts
)
so for me skipping it = major loss of funtime. So even knowing they dont have effect, i dont skip it.
I'd like to see that knobs all working as it should, but well...i guess nothing ideal
maybe next version will be much kooler
P.S. From "go for realism" buyer perspective i agree that there is need to mark what really works in model, and what not. but if that done, splitting the manual for "working\ mock" not required then.