The JAA recurrent check program is too full of bull, and too prescriptive.
Mandatory Circling Approaches are a waste of time for a start. I haven't done one in anger since I stopped flying turbo-props, and I think I could hack it if it ever became necessary. It should be a training option to practice them now and again. But there they are on the program, eating up precious time.
The commercial pressures and cutbacks at airlines means minimal time/money for real training.
Just "get the legalities done" as quickly and cheaply as possible is the bean-counters primary goal.
Any extra time allocated to training is a joke, and merely pays lip service to the concept.
How often have you seen a sim bomb out, and the LOFT dropped from the detail?