autosync,
SOME intrsutors in the US are paid in excess of $100 per hour; just not the majority however. SOME instructors are instructing as a career and doing very well at it, thank you. And no, their students don't feel they are being gouged, they feel they are paying for quality.
Navigating a Constellation (well, a generic airplane to be exact) by celestial navigation along the old North Pole route was one of the exercises assigned to a colleague of mine who elected to continue his career in the UK. During the year he was studying for the JAA ATPL he had no income and did not fly, while I made a good salary, was qualified in two turbine aircraft and sling work, and flew around 600 hours. He and I started our training at about the same time.
However, as the more level-headed HillerBee pointed out, if one wants to live and ply one's trade as a helicopter pilot in the UK (or elsewhere in the JAA states) one has no choice but to jump through these hoops. I, like many others, don't want to, while others consider the aggravation excessive.