I don't understand why there would be any jealousy at all. As you know once you have a PPL it's trivial to drop down to an RAA cert. And unlike a PPL, the RAA has much smaller weight limits, only 1 passenger, no possibility for multiple engines, aerobatics, night VFR, IFR etc.
I think it's mainly the '2 seats max' policy that lets the RAA exist without as many rules. You can do an awful lot more damage with a PPL.