"enjoying a coffe in the clubhouse"....I take it you are referring to a different EGCB or else taking your own coffee!!.Sadly this is something that can never change unless we fundamentally change the way we teach ppl's from the outset.The circuits are much tighter in the states and their SPL's seem to cope ok.I too flew from Long Beach and was impressed at the tightness of the circuits..didn't have much of a problem with them.Instructor did all the checks until I was ready to include them and it worked well for me.
Is there anything wrong with turning downwind early and continuing the climb to circuit height on downwind?..well yes I suppose there is if you take into account popping-up in front of traffic joining downwind,but it seemed to be the norm in the US.Any thoughts?