There is a lot to be said for capturing the sheer joy of flight itself, and I think that kind of innocent thrill is what "Pilotwings" was always about. Not quite my cup of tea, but I think it managed to tap into a difficult type of appeal that other flight simulators failed.
That said, when it comes to the candy referance, it's kind of funny because recently I was thinking about the old "Candyland" game and how the version of it I had as a kid had a bunch of descriptions of the places that were on the board, and who some of the depicted characters were supposed to be. It captured my imagination as a young child, as did some of the various "worlds" portrayed in maps and such on the back of cereal boxes and the like.
It got me thinking that many years ago "Polyhedron" (the old RPGA newsine) did a module based on Candyland. I'm sort of surprised with all of these attempts to cater to kids and a casual market, nobody has ever decided to seriously try and build the worlds depicted in things like "Candyland". If it's happened, I don't remember ever having seen it.
I'd just think that would be a more worthy undertaking than some of the things I've been seeing churned out.