but am I the only person who would question the suitability of someone to hold a licence who states....
No, you're not!
Happily, I have zero hours flying legal IMC/IFR in singles. I do have a few hundred filed IFR/IMC hours in properly equipped twins though, and that teaches me how happy I am to not have attempted it in singles. I do concede that in warmer parts of the world, IMC can be flown more safely in singles than here in Canada, but the possibility of airframe ice encounters, and failures in non redundent systems scares the heck out of me! Twice, I have survived in flight emergencies in IFR twins, which resulted from unforecast icing encounters. Several of my friends have not been so lucky.
My personal comfort level is that IFR/IMC in singles is a near emergency situation. Have I done it illegally? Yes. Was it planned, or a good idea? Never! It was done only because conditions had changed, or simply not ever had been forecast, and now I was there. For the most part, it was VFR on top (which at the time in Canada was still IFR). Instrument flight in cloud has the potential to be safer that scud running, but neither are a good idea in a single in my opinion. The only time I have ever had an artificail horizon roll over and die was within seconds of entering a cloud out of necessity, in a single. No dual systems, so some rather quick diagnosis to partial panel flying.
With a few exeptions, most light piston singles just are not designed for "hard" IMC flying. I agree that IFR filed for navigational convenience is generally not at all "hard" IMC, but you still have the potential to end up there! With a very few production singles actually being properly equipped for IFR these days, I think amature built aircraft are generally less likely to be so well equipped, tested and qualified.
My two cents worth...