Nice paper, but the conclusion as the title:

"Why AI can simulate but not instantiate consciousness"

(My italics)

Seems a little loaded: there are various schools of thought (eg panpsychism-adjacent) that accept the premise that consciousness is (way) more fundamental than higher-order cognition-machines (eg human brains) and we don't ascribe "simulate" to their conscious activity. They just are conscious.

I agree with the paper (which is wide ranging and interesting) on its secondary claim above; I just don't see the separation between AI and NI ("natural" intelligence) as having been established by it.