Agree with some of your sentiments - but the unfortunate fact of life is that there is an all-pervading sense of 'I had it tough, so shall ye' about the dogged insistence on utter trivia so beloved of the CAA's exams. PLUS - you'll never know what you got wrong in the exam (except at PPL level!!). But that means that they could never safely prosecute you for anything as you could claim that you asked for a debrief on your exams and were refused one. As the passmark is 70%, the other 30% could be totally unknown to you!! But it'll be worse under JARs as the exams have little to do with practicalities and more with obscure theory.
One of the many acknowledged reasons for people going to the USA is that the fuel costs make things much cheaper. In the UK we're charged VAT and excise duty on fuel, so it's very expensive!! The solution is to cut fuel costs, encourage BASIC training to an industry standard in the UK and to accept FAA-level 'knowledge' to reduce costs - but not to criticise too harshly those who have been trained already from hours building in the USofA.
Now, just what was the system of lights required to be displayed at the mooring position of a tethered balloon? And how wide are the stripes on the streamers below a tethered kite? Or the required candela for a serviceable navigation light? And when must I demonstrate lifejackets to passengers in a flying boat?? The CAA think it's oh, so important to know things like this..............!!