Can the macbook air trackpad play nice with the iOS simulator?

Unfortunatly the simulator was not built to understand multi-touch gestures which is strange considering the rest of the OS has. I think you will just need to wait until Apple updates the simulator.

This might help, I posted this elsewhere:

Enable 3 finger drag:

1. From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
2. Click the Accessibility icon
3. Choose Mouse & Trackpad from the options on the left
4. Click Trackpad Options
5. Place a checkmark next to "Enable dragging"
6. From the related pop-up menu, choose “three finger drag” so there's a checkmark next to it
7. Click OK

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204609