Yes, you will only ever be as good as the time / effort / dedication / currency / money you put into your flying, but I suppose the regs have to be drafted according to some objective criteria.
Yesterday I met a multi thousand hour pilot who cannot read TAFs and METARs. He never looks at them. Obviously he never looks at notams. He flies a homebuilt and has had a PPL for many years.
There are all kinds out there.
I think the regs about money passing along are silly. They should prevent the pilot or his employer making a profit, that's all. As drafted, the CAA has had to publish a mass of exemptions to make the system work. Even now, for example, you cannot do cost sharing in an N-reg but can in a G-reg.