I have to say, it shows how much Winstun/Churchall knows about ATC, if he thinks the smaller the standard being ran between aircraft the more proficient the controller. In Australia some of the best controllers I saw, were the guys working the fully procedural airspace across the middle of Australia, running a minimum 20DME standard between aircraft, up to a whopping 10 minutes between 2 non Rnav approved aircraft. Just because the distance required between their customers was large, did not mean the service provided was any less.
As Scott said, in the rest of the world, the concesus is generally, the most difficult stream of ATC to work is Area/Enroute, then comes Approach, and then Tower. So again because Area is running 5NM (and most likely aiming to keep them at least a comfortable 7 or 8 NM's apart due to the fact each of their aircraft are doing 7 or 8 NM's a minute!), rather than Approach, who with their screen on a scale at least a quarter the size of Area, can happily run 3NM, does not mean Area are any lesser controllers than Approach.
Again I know, Ferris, I shouldn't be answering the wind up, but I think there may be other pilots out there who may benefit from understanding a little of what we do. I echo the comments of others on here in saying all pilots should make it a part of their yearly check to visit the local ATC centre, to understand, that just because there is no R/T going on, does not mean the controller is not working his butt off, just as doing Jumpseat famil flights told us the same thing about pilots.