To what extent is it possible to design hardware using a software simulation of its behavior? Do you actually need to manufacture the hardware in order to develop it?
If you are designing a board with other people's chips on, where are you going to get the simulation models from?
I worked at a product design consultancy and saw a number of board designs come through the office. All of them had a prototype run of 3-6 boards, which ended up with one or two modification wires before a second, final, production run was done.