B2N2:
I am sorry, but I take your post as you being very uninformed. A 10 day course CAN teach someone the academics AND the flying. But it depends on the school/instructor/student to do it the RIGHT way. I can tell you that I used five different DPE's when I taught a 10 day instrument course. They ALL told me that my 10-day students were more prepared for real world flying than any of the other students who were going the traditional route.
Aviation, at the professional level, is almost ALL accelerated training. How many long term type rating courses are out there? I know of MANY that are only 4-5 days long! Are they just doing monkey see, monkey do? If so, I think I will stick to flying myself instead of the airlines.
I could go on an on, but since you think this thread is going nowhere, I will leave it at that!