Manwell, I wasn't putting too much emphasis on "time to solo", my point was that the course, before solo, only looked at the three emergencies which a student might be expected to handle.
Your suggestion of a captain being able to cope with almost ANY emergency would lengthen any pilot's course of training, and delay the solo phase to a detrimental degree. Solo time is important for consolidation of training and building confidence in one's skills. If it doesn't happen until 40 or 50 hours of non-stop emergencies, your course looks a little overly inwards-looking.
In addition to Power+Attitude (in Balance) = Performance, you also need to add "TRIM OR FAIL!" for the plank drivers.