> If it is possible that to make a simulation which matches our experience, then it is likely possible to make an unbounded number of such simulations.

Why? This seems to me to be the weakness in the argument.

Of all the universes in which it is possible for a technological species to evolve and create a simulation of our universe, what’s the probably of said simulations having a given incentive or conducive cost/benefit ratio for said species?

Theoretically this could range from “can only do one once before our budget runs out and we move on” to your “unbounded” claim. But with what distribution?

This question seems fundamental and so reduces the initial question to a more complex one than what you pose: is it possible and if so how plausible?

Unless I’m missing something, leaping over this factor, as seems to be the mainstream approach, indicates to me that some techno-utopic-transcendentalism bias is at play.