Hi Barend,
Yes, that is my idea about Dynamics/Simulations as well; it is a little bit more tricky to art-direct individual items.
Going by your posts, you might know all of that, but since I write in a forum, please let me add this:
You can use the Force inside the Riged Body tag or just use Force> Friction and perhaps fine-tune it locally with Fields.
I'm sure you use camera and editing options to create a perfect illusion anyway.
Perhaps this triggers some ideas:
https://www.youtube.com/live/D8cSh7G-OuY?si=LkAfzauJOfgMtOJt&t=3370
My best wishes for your project.