Pace,
Am second guessing the Cirrus group you are talking about. If its the same, I do a bit of instructing for them at one of the other locations. The ten hours is not a moneymaking scheme as far as I can see, just the result of offering an expensive aircraft to the open rental market.
The origonal checkout was 5 hours, which seemed adequate for most people, this was bumped up to 10 hours due to insurance requirements, this applies across the board, even for experienced sep instructors, and can be a bit of a pain, but thats how it is. Its a balancing act, lower checkout requirements = massively higher premiums, and a 10 hour checkout was a blunt tool to even things out.
For someone like yourself it would probably equate to 3-5 hours, checkout, and the remainder effectively carrying a safety pilot.
The cirrus is marketed to and attracts alot of high net worth individuals, a % of whcih have pulled the chute, resulting in a high chance of a full hull loss on a new expensive aircraft, and an owner with the means to take matters further if they want to.
If you look at insuring a cirrus as a private owner/operator the minimum hours I have heard being quoted would probably shock you, and has directly led to a number of people joining the no equity groups, to allow them to build up experience on type to access lower premiums themselves.