I do not know why it has taken so long to be considered.
No doubt this concept will offend some Australian purists, as this is what they have done in the FAA system for a very very long time.
I wonder when the exam system will be kicked into line with worlds best practice. I once thought doing a flight planning exam was about testing my knowledge on flight planning, it turns out it was actually a pseudo language reasoning exam, who would have thunk it.