This is one of the most atrociously embarrassing accident reports I have ever read, and I have read many... if I was the pilot I would be grateful for not having my name on it.
I am not against a BRS chute and it is a great safety feature which would facilitate SE flight over areas where one might not want to go otherwise (mountains, forests) and it is a lot cheaper than having a second engine, but the vast majority of Cirrus chute pulls were the outcome of pilot stupidity / very poor training, and this is just one more of the same.
His atrocious instructor(s) - especially the one who signed him off - are no doubt equally grateful for remaining anonymous, but they would have nothing to fear under the UK system where there is never any comeback on an instructor.
To be fair however, in the UK PPL system you could get your differences training signed off for the Apollo Lunar Module without demonstrating competence on anything more than how to flip the main engine CBs... it is a long-obsolete system which is steeped in history and which has got totally left behind GA avionics development for about 20 years. It carries on largely because few instructors know even how to load a route into a Garmin 430 so there is no interest in the training apparatus in doing anything about it. When I bought my TB20 in 2002, I never found an instructor who knew how the HSI worked. Even the current JAA IR theory is full of old 1970s B737 crap.
There is a Cirrus training course which is insurer-mandated in the USA but I don't know what happens over here.
The statement
The aircraft was approved for flight under VFR only.
is indeed bizzare and shows how little GA expertise there is in the AAIB today. It may be technically true on the particular aircraft due to some avionics being missing but then the AAIB report should have amplified such a statement, because I am sure no VFR-only SR20 has ever been sold on G-reg or N-reg. I also think such an aircraft would have been illegal to fly due to required equipment being INOP.
I do know that ~ 25 years ago Socata were flying TB aircraft with no gyro instruments, on the ferry flight from France to Biggin Hill only, but they were never sold like that because they were unairworthy IAW the POH.