I believe the original point was that taking friends flying with a basic PPL is legal, but if they pay more than their share it becomes illegal, and that this is illogical. Yes, it is. Personally, I can't think of a good reason for it.
I am going to take this from a slightly different angle. There are two well known statements. Firstly gaining a PPL is a basic licence to start learning.
Second is a question we should ask of a pilot is whether we would be happy to send our kids up with that pilot?
Joing the two together would you be happy with a new pilot who has just got a licence to start learning to take your kids up flying?
I know my answer would be NO! There are long established pilots I wouldnt be happy sending my kids up with but I certainly would not be happy sending my kids up with a pilot who flew 12 hrs a year and was not experienced.
The Law states that such a newbie pilot can take his friends, business associates and family for flights.
Obviously the law does NOT regard the friends, family and business associates as having the same rights to safety as those who hand over money.
A lot in flying is about double standards and slight of hand a lot is to do with protectionism and protecting companies who pay a lot of money to comply with certain regulations and restrictions and who then demand that they are protected from pilots who could easely undercut them and operate to lower standards.
So this is a complex one. Would you be happy with Pilot X flying your children in Y aircraft ? that should be the question.
The exhange of money is really irrelevant.
Pace