I also think it'd be a shame to lose the SIM aspect of the banner ... so I agree - if anyone can recreate the image in a sim it be great to add that.
A totally different idea I had was to basically create a topic for banner submissions (just like the old competition - R.I.P.) and I just choose one from there each month.
The real problem with *any* submission is that sometimes people find it hard to visualise the shot in the very narrow letter-box shape that the banner has. I've looked at Jono's superb RL pics, but most of them are (understandably) zoomed into the aircraft and hard to crop.