You are not choosing between this and nothing. You are choosing between this, a survey, a research agency, and finding out live. Here is where each one wins.
Use a simulation when
The decision has a date and a cost attached, and being wrong is expensive.
You need the reaction of a group rather than the average of individuals, because contagion and tipping points are the thing you are worried about.
You want three options compared before you commit to one of them.
The population is hard or slow to recruit.
You need a direction in days rather than a number in months.
Use a survey when
You need to know what people believe or say, rather than what they will do.
The population is nothing like anything observable in behavioural data.
You need a defensible single number for a regulator or a board, rather than a range.
The decision is small enough that being wrong is cheap, and asking is cheaper than modelling.
WE WILL TELL YOU WHICH ONE YOU NEED ON THE SCOPING CALL, INCLUDING WHEN IT IS NOT US.