Hughes500. I feel your pain and you are not alone. Many small helicopter companies complain about that and other bureaucratic overload. In that article I used, it was quite clear, that EASA is aware of the problem. I hope there will be a change, but bureaucracy has the unfortunate habit to get worse. Interestingly, the UK was the main driver of it (ask any Swiss operator). The big UK companies forced the smaller ones to adapt to their standard. What I don't get, you are not part of EASA since 2021. You have to blame the CAA, now. EASA really wants the smaller companies to have more freedom, but EASA has to coordinate quite a few national agencies and not all of them think that this idea is good.
As for training in the US, they are in a transition phase, from the Practical Test Standards (PTS, one fits all) to Scenario Based Training. It is implemented for fixed wing and should shortly become also the standard for helicopter training.
The idea behind it is, that every student learns what he actually needs. A private pilot who is only flying around on Sundays for recreational purposes, will receive a different training, than a pilot who aims for the airlines from the start. I think this makes sense, others think it is complicated and stupid. Time will tell. BTW the FAA mentions expressly that stick and rudder skills will not be compromised. I hope they stick to that, because some pilots today are lost without iPad and autopilot.
If you are interested here is the FAA site:
https://www.faa.gov/training_testing/training/fits/
From my experience, there are all sorts of FI's and schools in the US. Some of them are bad, I mean really bad. They tend to disappear after a while with the money of the students normally. But the US also has companies like Flight Safety or quite a few universities have an aeronautical department with flight training - also helicopter. You get ratings and degrees there. Even EASA ratings are possible at least for fixed wing. EASA does not have any helicopter flight school anymore on their list of approved schools. I thought there were two.
The FI-problem is a mixed bag in the US. Some schools really take the cheapest CFI's they can get and know very well, that they will leave for the airlines as soon as possible. Not so bad in the helicopter industry, where low time CFI's start with just the easy flights and ground school and have to work their way up to more difficult tasks (insurance). None of the CFI's I did full downs or other crazy things with, was a young hot shot. Many CFI's enjoy teaching and do it part time with a better paying flying job as the main occupation. Some of them have strange habits, but one can always learn something from the old geezers. One of them insisted, that on the 180° auto to bleed of airspeed almost completely, like a quickstop at altitude, turn with the pedals towards your landing spot and then build up airspeed again. While I was quite reluctant at first, it worked quite well. Somehow much less stressful than the conventional way and a lot easier to hit the spot. One trick more in the bag. Anyway, there are very good schools and very experienced CFI's in the US, one has just to find them.
Yeah, I have done full downs in the H300. No drama. In the R44 it is almost boring. The R22 I don't like for full downs. Not extremely difficult but I just don't get very comfortable with it. Strange feeling, since I have most of my full downs in R22's.