Pace - it is an interesting area. In particular your comment about a pilot being a pilot is one I share. I suspect the public views a pilot little differently from someone that drives a car. You have either got the license or not. I suspect the public do recognise the importance of experience; we are all slightly nervous of getting into a car with someone who has just passed their driving test, but I suspect that is as far as they go.
As we have discussed the authorities rightly set the bar higher for pilots or drivers who provide public transport services. (except in the case of taxi drivers I guess who at most only have to pass a knowledge test, which says more about their ability to get from A to B) than to drive safely. They also set the bar higher for instructors although applying the same analogy anyone can teach someone to drive a car.
and so my earlier point was as soon as you allow people to cost share or to take people for pleasure flights (dressed up as trial lessons) you have already eroded the perceived "protection" of allowing the public to fly with a pilot with the assumption he has the necessary skill set to conduct the flight.
I well recall taking some friends flying the day after I passed my PPL. They knew I had just passed because I told them. I might not have told them. We did an aerial tour of the local cabbage patch. We might not have done - we could just as well set off for the South of France. I suspect they thought I was as well qualified to fly anywhere and in any weather as any other pilot.
I agree with the sentiment expressed by others. There are a few areas where the ANO should be clear; this is one of those areas and its really not good enough the law is not clear.