SAS,
I agree with your comments except:
An FI who does the job properly, works bl**dy hard. Certainly far harder than any airline pilot.
I think that is a little unfair. the two roles are so far reached from each other that I think to judge one against the other is wrong.
as ar as the original post goes:
The earlier comments to make the FI course longer and give a dispensation to CPL holders- why not get PPL holders to do a pre FI course ground school course (and exams) and call it a .....CPL groundschool course!!
TAA DAA!