Are you talking to me? I mean you replied to my comment, but saying that I'm referencing studies doesn't make any sense. Well at least not to me, because I don't believe that I claimed to have any studies for anything.
If you meant to reply to me, please go read my first paragraph, and the maybe try it a second time. I actively tried to avoid getting labeled as dismissing the claims.
I think tinkercad is a great place to start. It's browserbased and doesn't cost money. It may not have a lot of components, but it still have quite a few more than just resistors, caps and inductors. And it is aimed at newbies and hobbyists, which is reflected in range of the available components. Being able to drag an Arduino into your sketch and have it run your program is neat.
We used to use yenka, when I taught electronics. It was OK for teaching, but I don't know if I'd recommend it for self-paced learning as a hobbyist. It costs money, requires software installation and is so much more than just electronics that navigating the program can be difficult. And default settings explodes components when you put too much current through them, that alway annoyed me.