FFF,
That is probably true. But exactly the same is true of an IR holder doing an average number of PPL hours per year.
Agreed with the caveat that it is a matter of degrees. As you know the IR training is much more rigourous with much greater demands for accuracy and arming the pilot with many more techniques to maintain accuracy and situational awareness. I suspect, that an IR pilot would be considerably safer than an IMC pilot with only the same amount of VFR only time since IR/IMC training, the longer the gap, the more so. That doesn't mean to say the IMC pilot would unsafe, but I wouldn't feel comfortable comparing the two ratings in such a way.