Geoff,
Many years ago I attended a lecture on Flight Safety and Human Factors at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London.
One of the speakers was from the FAA and during his lecture he brought up the difference in philosophies between the FAA and CAA. He took two pilots, one trained to FAA standards and one to the CAA's. At the end of the training both flew to the same standard but the CAA licence holder was streets ahead with "aviation knowledge". When both reached 1200 flying hours both flying ability and "knowledge" were the same. The CAA candidate lost all the useless bits on the way and the FAA candidate picked up all that was useful.
Which is the best?, most students will always opt for the easiest solution and at the end of the day he/she will not be a lessor pilot for it if they follow the FAA route. If they follow the CAA way then will finish up a lot poorer, be more knowledgeable, for a time at least, and have a licence that normally only requires Air Law to change.
I have to pick up on Heliport where he differentiates between can and cannot do with regard to the US and Europe. Flying in Holland weather/conditions marginal, Ops Manual out, to a man the Brits said we can go, our Dutch colleagues said no. The reason was the book did not say we could go, but it also did not say we could not go and two different cultures crossed. The point I'm making is that the line between the US and Europe is fuzzy because Europe is united with its confusion and cultures.
I've used CAA because that is what it was at the time but it can be replaced by JAA.