AirBubba: no, not my point at all. Precisely less emphasis on paperwork and more on practicality, application and understanding. It does not need to be more complex.
For instance: it is one thing to be able to regurgitate a "red box" in the classroom, but in a smoke-filled cockpit it is far more practical to have emphasis on what your hands are actually doing, not getting brackets and commas in place.
The toughest checkrides I have had, by far, were all at foreign carriers. Funnily enough, the people who complained about them the most being too tough were all from the US.