Not remotely offended, but don't completely agree.
I want to add -
without a doubt, 3E was the version of D&D most aimed at supporting simulationist play - just look at the changes to saving throws, for example, from a metagame mechanic to a process simulation.
But interestingly - and fitting with @
MichaelSomething and @
Mustrum_Ridcully 's comments upthread - the game is not really designed to support full-fledged simulationist play. If you start exploring the system, and the fantasy world that it implicitly creates, in ways that go beyond AD&D expectations, the game breaks fairly easily.
I think 3E is therefore a curious thing - intended to satisfy a certain sort of simulationist aesthetic, while being used for a less-than-fully simulationist purpose - AD&D-style gamism with a heavy exploratory chassis.