If all you want to do is bimble around day VFR with up to 3 mates
There are 2 problems with that:
The candidate cannot be sure up front that is all he will want to be doing.
The "3 mates" will get bored after the first couple of flights, especially if they are asked to cough up 75% of the cost of the flight. Then you will fly with 3 other mates. Soon, you run out of mates.
The vast majority of new license holders pack it all in within a year or so. It's a really sad state of affairs. There are numerous reasons for this - all discussed here many times in the past - but limiting one's license privileges in such a big way, for the very small saving on the initial effort, is IMHO a bad idea.
It is possible to fly to France on an NPPL, all you need to do is ask the French for permission.
True, and same is true of Mongolia, Iran, in fact every other country. You just need to get permission........... That is after you have sorted out PPR, PNR, checked out avgas, opening hours, all the other crap. In this business, the last thing one needs is to do yet more crap before flying somewhere.
And flying abroad is one of the huge attractions of flying. If I look at the arrivals and departures at my local airfield (a busy GA one) at any given instant, about 90-95% of them could have been driven in a car in less time. I know a lot of people enjoy just going up for a flight (I certainly do) but if all one ever does is fly at that level, the whole activity is - for many - a constant struggle against boredom.
No wonder so many give up so soon.
Whereas going abroad delivers a utility value which no other means of travel can get anywhere near. France for lunch. How else could you do that? If you stay overnight, the options widen dramatically.
The NPPL was conceived by the flight training industry, to deliver a "product" which they could stick on their price list, with a lower £ figure next to it than the normal PPL. Nobody ever thought about its value, and unsuprisingly the great majority of takers were existing pilots who could no longer get the CAA Class 2 medical.
What the industry should have done instead was to ask itself "what can we do to make fewer people chuck it in the moment they have done the skills test". But the industry has no mandate to do that. They have had your £8000 or so.