Dude
It was actually me who wrote the first quote you attribute to rustle
The best way, perhaps the only way I can think of, of learning how to fly private-GA either in
a) airways around Europe, or
b) IFR around the UK (IMC Rating sort of thing)
is to fly around with someone who knows how to do it. And the two styles are significantly different.
I know of a number of serious-budget people who went to the USA, came back with an FAA PPL/IR, bought a brand new top-end IFR piston single, and "rented" somebody like that to fly with them to far away sunny places.