Try to land a plane without pedals during crosswind, with no cheat options for coordinated flight active.
That will heal all your doubts immediately.
Boy, you cannot even fly a simple
coordinated turn without pedals. And how one would dogfight in IL2 and be able to precisely aim at your target without pedals is beyond me.
Situational awareness in IL2 I managed to maintain very well before Track IR, by reserving two POV Hats on my HOTAS for quick all-directions view panning on two different viewing height levels (same and higher altitude), and by reserving two more buttons for clever lock-view-on-target functions. That can be easier achieved than flying without pedals.
And helicopters without pedal control is a loss from A to Z anyway. At least if you pay some attention to the simulation aspect of a sim instead of tuning it into an action flight game.