I think some people may be too rigid in their rules.
If you are flying a simple plane with no instruments, then obviously you will just be looking out of the window.
But the real world isn't like that.
A typical hazy English summer, say 2k-5k vis, especially over the sea, is very hard to fly (other than at a low level, which brings its own issues) without a periodic reference to the AI, not to mention modern nav instruments (GPS) because visual nav is then very difficult.
Obviously a 10hr pilot is not going to be doing that but a 10hr pilot is not going to be doing a lot of things (like, errrm, the radio
).
At some stage you need to turn out a pilot who can use his £10,000 ICAO compliant Private Pilot's License for actually going somewhere, and I am not talking about the 1000km viz and blue-sky-to-outer-space conditions on which instructors are willing to allow the QXC.
So there will be a progression towards an instrument scan, at some stage.
A good pilot, even a plain PPL, will be naturally scanning
both the instruments and the outside.