I agree with the spirit of Odd One's and IO540's views. That the punter can start training with a goal in mind and if that goal is business into Europe then why spend 43 hours training in a 152 with an intermittent transponder. However, as most students are not Captain Capacity incarnate and the course take considerably longer to complete - how do you market that?
Problem is, I get the idea that 90% of students start off with one idea and end up doing something completely different anyway.
Also I can't agree that the traditional methods should be compromised because of technology. The navigation principles learnt (or that should be learnt at PPL level) apply regardless of flight rules or tools. It is difficult to see what should be changed in the PPL without adding more.
On a sombre note, as the economy is wavering a little bit, and as it doesn't seem to take much for the airlines to find that all of a sudden they have too much capacity, then I wonder if the shortage will last long?