It's still pretty far physically accurate because there is infinite acceleration the moment a ship reaches the target orbit.

That sounds like it would be a completely different game and probably not as fun since you'd have to use some very fiddly controls to manually get into orbit. If you eliminate orbit entirely then it's just a slalom race. "Hitting" each star/planet is the immediate feedback that makes it fun.

True. Hard to square it being a game, fast-spaced and accurate.