Echo Mike
As the owner of two C152's I agree with most of the technical content of what you say, however your opinion on costs is not good for the eastern side of the Atlantic.
With most parts prices will go up by 75-100% by the time they get to the maintenance company due to shipping, import, and the issue of a 8130 (no yellow taggs in EASA land).
The new EASA regulation requires a lot more paperwork and most company's have had to employ another paper-pusher to keep up with this, not to forget the payment to EASA to keep the approval to do the work. This costs about £600 per year for each aircraft just to do the paperwork.
The costs of local taxes on business and push the labour rate to £40/hour (about $60) and add 15% VAT to this and you get the idea of costs of running aircraft in Europe.