Sevarg, people like to hark back to the S61 as if it were wonderful (and in truth it was not bad, in fact very good for its age!). On that old lady, the Emerg lube system as you say was an electric pump using oil from a low point in the sump. It is therefore similar in concept to the standby pump on the Super Puma family, the only difference being the method of pump drive. Of course with hindsight having 2 completely separate types of drive (mechanical and electric) seems a good thing. However neither of these systems meets the need for continued flight following complete loss of oil, the S61 would not be compliant with the current rules in this respect.
This is where the 225 Emerg lube comes in. Since you have to consider the worst location of the leak, it really has to be a total loss system. In order to keep the total fluid required down to a reasonable amount, EC decided to use it sprayed with a lot of air, hence the need for less than 12 litres to last over 30 mins and I suspect ordinary oil wouldn't atomise or do the same cooling trick as the glycol.
Otherwise, I quite agree with you that the system's downfall is the inability to excercise the valves and pump, or test the switches, prior to flight. The only trouble is that the more stuff you add to allow test, eg a means of pressuring the system without putting glycol into the gbx, the more complexity you add and therefore reduce the reliability. On the other hand, we are starting from a place of pretty low reliability!
All that said, the ability to fly 40 miles still air is not the be all and end all, I would rather not have it but have a MGB that didn't suffer from bits breaking off!