To a point you are correct backpacker. But...
I had been trying to convert my Canadian float rating - between 2007 and 2008 the CAA requirements changed.
No announcement just the relevant 2 pages in LASORS were changed. Of course I didn't know about that (LASORS has only got 684 pages andnaturally I read it before every flight!). To that you could throw in the AIP - no idea how many pages but it is full of thiings which if you do not comply with you commit an offence! And then you might add the current (and very fluid) maintenance arrangements - and trying to bottom those out is foxing even the CAA surveyors.....
Air Law tells you thse things exist, some like the AIP have become much easier to access, some like LASORS is interpretation of the law and not necessarily correct and changes without any real announcement and some - like the maintenance is in the too hard category!
If this place has a real merit it is probably that these sort of changes tend to get flagged