Maybe the simple answer here is to put in more hours of instrument training during the PPL, is one hour REALLY enough? I found flying under the hood pretty easy, but it was a controlled enviroment with a competent instructor sat next to me, on a calm day. I suspect that this minimal training has virtually zero use when a panicing low hour PPL finds themselves in thick cloud with turbulance, and no one there to help them out....
As an aircraft engineer, I am fortunate to understand most A/C systems, or be able to work out quickly what does what, or ask someone to expain it to me, but to any other person, most modern aircraft panels are a very complex beast to understand fully.