As far as the CPL(H) exams go, it isn't quite that simple. I took the old CAA ones, so things may change with JAA, but I doubt it. Some of the information was, if not useless, certainly not very useful - like learning by heart formulae you'd be unlikely to need in real life and could look up if you did. Some of the questions were so worded that you could read them 3 or 4 times and still wonder what on earth was meant.
Some were plain wrong, if you knew more than a little bit (just enough for the exams) about the subject. The best (or do I mean worst)example of that for me was the Human Performance exam; since I have a degree in psychology, with physiology to second year, I knew that a number of the answers were in reality: "it depends", or "sometimes", or "that's something the experts argue about frequently". But I wanted to pass the exam, so I learned the CAA's answers. I remember being told (hi there Alex!) that radio hams had similar problems with the Radio Aids exam. And I just scraped through the Helicopter Principles of Flight, despite having done more work for that than any of the others because I was interested. I only actually passed because I remembered and queried one question - about the height of the ground cushion. I got an answer from the CAA saying the book they used ("The Helicopter and How It Flies", by John Fay - can you believe it?) had their "right" answer, but after some research they'd found that most of the standard texts agreed with me, and they were giving me the extra marks and a pass. But I would have said that was an "it depends" - on the surface you're hovering over etc.
So, Q Max, I'd say you're partly right, but only partly. I learned a lot of useful stuff, it's true. I'm not sure what use it is for an R22 pilot to learn about flying airliners at 37,000 ft, and the details of machmeters and jet streams, and how to correct for compressibility, and use a CRP5 practically in my sleep. But I didn't mind any of that. What I did mind is having to spend time learning and remembering formulae and rules that no-one could remember long term, that I've now forgotten. And spending a lot of time learning to jump through CAA hoops rather than think for myself. And since time is not infinite, some of that time could have been better used.