I agree with you Jum.
I had simulation problems with pr*o*t*eus 5. I tried to simulate a LED display multiplexing but it crashed. I tried to simulate frequency output with speaker, again it crashed. For simple programs, it is OK. But for complex one's, no good.
If you are using PIC with flash ROM or any controller with similar features, it is simple. Instead of simulation, I prefer ICSP - In circuit serial programming, easy to program and much reliable for complex works.
A simple switch can be applied to the circuit to get the PIC in programming environment.
Or, I recommend to build your programmer and/or application with an Texttool socket.