Paper trading, a trade simulator

Being brought up in an Asian household with many friends that knew how to play Majong, we would always say this particular Chinese phrase.
“你要学就要换学费！”
Translated meaning "If you wish to learn, you gotta pay the learning fees!", where learning fees meant one has to pay their losses to learn the game fast.
I believe that trading is no different in that sense.
Paper trading although teaches investors the basics of investing and how trading fees work, there is definitely a case to argue about the stakes/emotions at play. While something might work "technically" in paper trading, investors when it comes to real money, might be emotionally stressed when they see their hardearned money going up and down very fast in a trading day. As such, no paper trading may ever teach investors that and thus the reason why I brought up the phrase in the beginning.
I believe that investors may learn better (if they do their due research) and faster if they were to trade with real money, and if it is too emotionally stressful for some, they could definitely lower their stakes and slowly get used to the stress.