Gen Ties, your romantic idea's of Tiger Moths and glide approaches is touching and probably a good idea in the perfect world. However we no longer have the benifit of a large open field in the country to land. We have concrete and cross-winds. Also residential area adjacent to the airfield, these factors mean that the modern day pilot has to be considerate towards the public and fly larger than perfect paterns.
Also with many ex-wartime airfields having now closed there x-wind runway we cannot land into wind, which means it is better for the student to be stablised, in trim and on track for the final stage of the cct.
Glide approaches also have there own problems in the form of carb-icing!!