It'd be an interesting comparison to see how many Oz PPL's have gone the PIFR route
I went the PIFR route in 2001 (CPL since 1979, military CIR since 1972) simply because the aircraft model was unique to Oz, and finding somebody qualified to do the CIR test was nearly impossible. At least with the PIFR, it was every 2 years, and then it was only a "review" not a test, so that any item that was not up to scratch had some dual and another run, instead of Instant Fail.
Even then, as the suitable testing officers retired from the game, I had to pay CA$A to bring an old FOI up from Melbourne to Sydney, pay his accommodation, pay for the test and so on, and he only held a bare years-old endorsement on the type and had never been in that model. And he was officially in command for the flight, as I was under a hood. How safe is that. When the review finished at the Richmond ILS, he begged me to have a fly back to KSA. Probably doubled his time on type.