I'm more or less with you I-M, but not totally.
Whilst a PPL is not of sufficient academic rigour to count as part of a degree pass, nor are many of the subjects as taught in the first year of any Engineering degree. However, like those, there's potential to build upon them with a view to teaching subjects in a way that just wouldn't be possible otherwise.
To offer an obvious example, flight mechanics - taught far too often as a purely academic subject with no relation to the actual task of flying an aeroplane. (I recall getting into a thoroughly enjoyable debate on this subject during my PhD transfer viva with an academic who knew far more than I about the maths of flight mechanics, but had never actually learned to fly an aeroplane - we came at it from totally different viewpoints). Similarly there is much potential to involve students in real-aeroplane project work to a degree which wouldn't be possible without their having developed a good knowledge of flying. But I think it must be important that the PPL is a means to an end within the degree, and not an end in itself.
As to the last point, that will be a difficult challenge, as will persuading academics who don't understand either aviation or engineering to start thinking in terms of flying machines, not bits of discrete structure and code. I have an idea as to the nature of the problems here, but as yet, not enough answers.
G