Decades ago, Sid Meier's Pirates had a more realistic sailing model, which made you feel the difference between triangular and square sails, in a game where the player had a lot of other challenges to master. And Meier is a designer who always put fun and playability above realism.
There are plenty of sailing simulators (e.g. Windward), just none featuring large square riggers. In any case, my beef is more with the misleading headline.
If a game advertised "real weapons handling", and it turned out to have infinite ammo with no reloads or shell drop, wouldn't you feel a bit lead on?
It's not fun to spend an hour going zig zag against the wind? What about an hour doing it with a boat full of precious materials that can't go through the portal while you're being chased by some ungodly horror from beneath the waves?