I totally agree that the amount of time taken to solo is not too important. Although I went solo with a fairly low number of hours, the following factors must be taken into account:
I was on a full-time residential course, an RAF Flying Scholarship, taught by civvy instructors. We had few outside distractions; we lived, breathed and dreamed aviation. We lived thirty yards from the aircraft.
I was just 17 yrs old. The benefits of youth are that one's brain is more likely to be relatively fresh and free of clutter (like worries about mortgage payments, sick kids back home, the argument with the wife this morning, etc).
The syllabus required us to go more or less on time. We were given a finite number of hours only.
We had all passed RAF aptitude tests for pilot. We were essentially, competing for a limited number of places to enter the RAF as pilots.
Although I "shone" a bit to start with, only few years later, in RAF training, I struggled more than a little and needed some extra hours to meet the standard required. My brain had other stuff going on, which provided a distraction, and I suffered a lack of continuity due to illness. I also had early doubts about my chosen path and had a personality clash with an instructor. In those days we were expected to be single pilot, steely-eyed killers who ate eat raw beef; anyone who didn't make the grade to fighter pilot was a substandard human being and threatened with being relegated to multi-engine or even worse, helicopters! We had to meet the continuous assessment standards. If we failed a trip (they were all assessed), we were given just five hours "flex" to pass a check-ride; if a pilot didn't meet the standard after that, essentially we got a "chop-ride" with the big boss and that usually meant the boot. The "chop rate" was high. I survived, by the skin of my teeth; however due to a medical problem (and probably a lack of suitable oulook / aptitude) I didn't make fast jets. I most certainly don't regret that.
Interestingly, some of the "Top gun hotshots" I knew from those days are no longer with us, lost to accidents, some early on. On the other hand, some of the strugglers and plodders became very accomplished pilots and made it to the top of the RAF.
This thread below is of interest:
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=164794
See post #7.
I worked with Sqn Ldr Malcolm Hunt (know him quite well) whilst instructing. IMHO, He is absolutely correct that it would often have been better to give more hours to a "slower to learn" pilot than to chop him (there were no female RAF pilots back then) and just find someone else instead, as the RAF has done in the past.
What a "hotshot" pilot cannot get taught is experience. A "slower" pilot is often a safer pilot because of a more cautious or thoughtful outlook.
First solo is a very small step. What happens later is far more important, IMHO.