Can't answer your first para, but regarding the differences in flight times it is worth bearing in mind that Sim vs aircraft makes a big difference. In the aircraft, all the time you spend strapping in, starting up and shutting down doesn't count and since it can take 40 mins for a beginner to complete startup drills under instruction, you effectively get a lot of "free" training. In the sim the clock starts when you step into the box and stops when you exit, so it takes a lot more sim time than aircraft time to achieve the same thing. Plus of course in the Sim you can do a lot of stuff that you just can't do in the a/c.
I don't know if there are differences in the sim and aircraft proportions of the 3 courses you mention, but that is one factor that might explain the differences.