I'm learning aeros at the moment on a Bulldog. Not the cheapest, but nice and punchy. Being able to park the prop and throttle and then heave about on the stick is a help. I'm using this as a staging post to a more capable machine. My feeling as a low time PPL is that aeros are definitely good for one's flying in general.
I'd be interested to hear the views of aerobatic pilos on parachutes. I think that I would prefer to have one, not so much because of the risk of airframe failure (unlikely if you are not being really daft) but because of the risk of an irrecoverable spin. John Farley has posted interestingly on this topic in the instructor's forum (his point being that each individual airframe may spin differently and display odd features in recovery). Having said this, by the time that you had wrestled unsuccessfully to recover a spin, then, even assuming a safe starting height, you might be too late to jump out.
[This message has been edited by FNG (edited 22 November 2000).]