When I first saw the title of this post, I immediately thought of Seneca (the Roman Stoic writer) playing at slavery and poverty. I haven't read the Seneca in a long time, but my strong impression when I read it was that he trivialized the whole thing by dressing in rags for a day once a year and proving to himself he could handle it. I'm guessing that your comment is implying something like that about Banks, Orwell and this blogger.
I don't know (and don't much care) what Tyra Banks did and I need to read the blogger more fully (I've only skimmed it), but Orwell spent years of his life (at different times) investigating poverty. The simulated or forced poverty he underwent in England was measured in months, not days or weeks (in 1927 and 1928). He also explicitly discussed (and agonized over) how "real" his poverty was given that he could wire home for money (and sometimes did, as I recall). I think that simulation can only go so far, but not all simulations are equal.
