I think some of the OWTs in Aus can be attributed to when the POHs were replaced with the Great Australian Flight Manual and all the "normal operations" sections were no longer there so people made it up as they went along.
When I first came out here from overseas and found people turning off electric fuel pumps on PA28s at 300 feet, using carb heat in the approach in Tomahawks and opening cowl flaps on short final in Mooneys "because that's the way we do it in Australia" I was amazed that none of the people who did these things stopped to think why it was a Bad Idea and the POH said not to.
Similarly with generic checklists, I think the stude really does need to be aware what aeroplane they are flying and use the SOP checklist for that aircraft, and told WHY. There are differences between different types of even lightys. One size doesn't fit all.