Fair enough Shunter it appears you are correct, however I have no guilt about misadvising any of the IMC holders when I was a sole instructor at a registered facility, as the advise I gave at least was on the side of caution.
Also the 1800 m visibility requirement can makes quite a difference to the probability of landing after descending to minima. Yes you can get a two hundred foot cloud base with 1800m viz below cloud, but more than often fog or heavy rain will limit horizontal viz meaning that on occasions that you are descending to the minima the viz is more likely than not to be below 1800m (hence the recommendations for higher DA/MDH for an IMC holder). It is rare you get situations right down to minima anyway, so the recommended minima are going to be sufficient on most occasions you need to use your IMC.
That said I will agree a current PPL/IMC holder is safer than a CPL/IR who hasn't flown for a year. However I will say the phasing out of the IMC becasuse of EASA regs is certainly a backward step with regard to safety.
It was better pilots received some kind of instrument training than none at all. Most students will take 25 hours to complete an IMC rather than 15.