After reading the "How long to solo" posts, I had exactly the same thoughts as you, Evo.
I soloed last week after 15 hours training. Only the last 3 hours of this 15 hours were circuits. Prior to this my instructor made me practice forced landings, recovery from full stall (both clean and full flaps, and from 15 degrees bank angle to simulate stalling whilst turning from base onto final) until my reactions and imputs became almost automatic. Similarily, a few go around with full flap and engine fire / aborted take-offs, etc. were thrown in for good measure.
Upon reading the number of people on PPRUNE who posted that they had soloed in 5 or 6 hours I did not think, "wow, what natural pilots", but instead, "how can an instructor have imparted sufficient knowledge in that time for a student pilot to handle anything other than a completely (hopefully) event-free single circuit". An ab-initio student would surely still be only getting to grips with basic handling and primary and secondary effects of controls after 5 or 6 hours.
I discussed the "how long to solo" thread on PPRUNE with a couple of instructors at my flying school and they suggested to me that to have demonstrated, practiced and completed all the relevant excercises in the JAR syllabus required to safely solo would take a minimum of 10 hours prior to starting circuits and a minimum of an hour or two of consistent circuits.
Its going to take a minimum of 45 hours flying to get your ticket so whats the rush about getting that first solo in prior to getting a little more experience.
My instructors view of when I was ready to solo at 15 hours was entirely consistent with my own judgement that I was ready, proficient and confident. I cannot imagine the posibility of first solo at single figure hours.
Mr. Wolfie.