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Well I have taught people who have FAA ATPL, and Canadian ATPL. Some are fine and excellent pilots. Not always been impressed though, and certainly they do not have the background knowledge of a CAA/JAA-trained pilot.
I teach at Bournemouth, an international airport. While it is not as big as some US airports that can be used by students, it is as complicated and involved to work with as Orlando International (flew in there in a C150 once). I think anyone I trained would be at home in class B airspace flying to 36L, MCO, as I had to.
The FAA PPL may be for a different purpose, but frankly I think it makes poor grounding for later commercial training. In the UK we have a separate, national licence for flying purely day-VMC for fun. Flying is about building on basic skills, and if early lessons were rather haphazard, and taught less effective flying techniques, then it makes the CPL and IR more difficult to approach. This forum is about professional training, and if people want a smooth path to a career in aviation they really need to be taught to fly well and correctly fromt he beginning, not from 200 hours in starting a CPL.
I'm not really sure an ATPL flight test is really needed. The requirement for 500 hours multi-crew is far more important, given the experience of some people I know with FAA ATPLs. The knowledge requirement may be a rather too broad for JAA ATPL, but FAA ATPL holders don't necessarily know some of the essentials in my experience.