Not necessarily - 800 hrs built up over 10yrs+ does not, IMHO, mean they are experienced.
In those 800hrs, built up over a long period of time, many bad habits will have been devloped and from my own experience those 'experienced' PPLs with a few hours were the ones on the way to accidents.
If these types of PPLs were to then become instructors, what would the standard be then ??
Good point, perhaps tightening the hours into a smaller time frame. But also I think that a well taught FI course should knock out the bad habits but still leave behind the Private flying experience.
And that's the bit I disagreed with and thought was controversial!
Ah, perhaps your sample has been better than mine. Once they get a few hours under there belt they do OK (inline with my other comments) but it is the customer who is paying for them to gain the experience (which was commented on as well).