"The reason they are in the syllabus is the lack of consultation when it was developed."
I disagree, the reason is because nobody has ever conducted a Training Analysis of what a pilot needs to know. Without that, it is not possible to state what is or isn't relevant. The exams and courses we have now have evolved over ther years do to a lack of direction from industry, governments, ICAO etc.
The UK ATPL was based upon what the RAF did. Prior to the CAA being formed, The RAF College of Air Warfare used to vet the questions. Strangely, at about the same time as the CAA took over from the Board of Trade, the RAF scrapped most of the things that went into those exams, wheras the CAA continued to use the same material.
Many European countries see the ATPL as an academic course with flying added. Since the JAA set the rules by committee the exams have degenerated into a bag of third rate questions because of two reasons. Firstly. the people who wrote them were probably highly qualified, but not in aviating and secondly, when the questions were circulated to all JAA member States for vetting, nobody had the time to do it. A Nil return, which most were, signified that they were OK.
Whilst the FAA system is deceidedly thin, the JAA system has lost the way; it sets out to give a pilot a sound grounding in aviation but fails to achieve it.