The point is with the US system it's representative of expertise whereas with the Euro system it's more representative of experience gained with your hand held the whole way there.
Well, mine was a long time ago. Brit CPL, then Senior Commercial, then ALTP. (yep) So let me protest a bit, and paint a picture at the same time.
1962 ish.
No hand-holding. DC3 FO. Viscount, 1-11, back to DC3 for first command. All based on being able to fly the aircraft . . . really fly it. Some of the routes were more than a tad demanding, and at first, done 24/7 with no weather radar. Got some serious thrashings in CBs then.
The exams took 3 days. Middle aged invigilators saying things like, 'Pens down, gentlemen, please.' Then about another three days on Performance A, First type rating, radio license etc., etc.
It was all SELF FUNDED - the initial IR costing circa six weeks wages a go. I have to say, the CPL written was a wake-up call for a young chap that had left school at 14 with no exams passed whatsoever.
circa 1985, for my American ATP I checked in Flight Training?? Testing?? inc. in San Antonio, I think it was. A man called Randy (his name was cast into his belt buckle) sat with his boots up on his desk. Somewhere from under his huge hat came a voice telling me I had six hours.
I took one, and wondered what the heck I'd missed. I rechecked the paper and wrote a long screed about why a performance question was wrong. It turned out to be the only question I got 'wrong.' Total time, one hour - thirty minutes.
The flight test was done in a 172 as the 727 operation had folded and the Seneca I was due to fly the next day got spread down a runway.
I don't think there is comparison, the Brit exams had given a Cambridge physics graduate a tough time. 'nothing that hard, but so much of it.' was how he described it. The American ones were a method of checking for a reasonable level of ability to BEGIN learning the science of aviation.
I've no issues with the American way, heck, I spent a week learning how to swing a compass in the UK, and I only ever did this once in the next 40 years.
It sounds like the Euro exams are very modernized. Just as well, really.
But as for the flying. Well, no one now is going to get a modern airliner with a skipper that's been through WWII. Some of those empty sectors were . . . educational. Airlines can't afford today's costs, there is no possibility of funding real flying training . . . unless of course, the cost is carried on the broad shoulders of the relevant nation.