When I learnt to fly the PPL was around 42 hours and I could not afford it.
I did not want to be on 50 or 60 hrs because I was flying around with instructors to keep myself current awaiting weather windows.
One thing you do have nowadays is a good home PC sim. Some you can customise with photo real scenery and accurate mesh terrain.
It is easy to fly the routes for practice as well as raising and dropping the visibility so you can get used to flying in poor vis.
Okay you wont get a fantastic feel in home sims but they are still a useful tool.
On my last Citation recurrent the operator put an engine on fire, threw in solid IMC. He then decided to throw in bad turbulence with the engine now shut down. Dropped the viz to 200 metres fog and then to top it all gave me 200 ibs of fuel a side on the ILS
Oh and failed the autopilot.
Hand fly to a zero vis landing on the ILS. OK not a home PC sim but a full motion and very real variety
Sims are a useful tool even the home PC variety to help keep current.
Pace