I think we are paying the price for many years of GA being full of statements like "GPS is illegal" or "GPS is illegal for primary navigation" etc etc, coming from quasi-official publications like GASCO or GASIL (which have the appearance and certainly the patronising prose which suggests, perhaps not entirely unintended, that it is the mouthpiece of the CAA). Plus the mainstream GA mags saying the same - though they have become a lot more modern lately.
Taking a novice pilot who has never seen anything other than the inside of a flying school, it is hardly suprising that so many pilots believe this crap.
I think that one reason that modern technology is more warmly embraced elsewhere in Europe is that the schools/clubs out there are less reluctant to have experienced PPLs hanging around. In the UK, the school environment is relatively sterile and the student gets to know exactly nothing which doesn't come from the instructors - until he gets his PPL and then how the hell do you go from here to somewhere far away??