I agree that the NPPL is a great facility and whilst one can quibble about bits of the procedures (let's face it, what system is got right first time - and as BEagle says - they found a problem, and reached a consensus on how to fix it; doubtless they'll do that again with other snags in the future), the UK GA scene would be far less well off without it.
I also like that it has very much become a qualification assessed primarily by competence rather than timeserved bundles of hours. This, in my opinion, should apply to almost all flying licences.
As a new JAR instructor with a lot of microlight experience, I've every hope of doing a few of these NPPL conversions in both directions, and look forward to doing them. Hopefully it can open up a lot more affordable fun for many pilots - which is what light aviation is supposed to be about after all.
G