BarkingMad: I'm on your side in this. I believe that pilots should learn to fly the a/c first, then operate it. Sadly, especially with self-funded TQ courses, time is premium and the courses are minimum. The couple of extra sessions required to achieve the ideal are considered a not-effective cost nor necessary for the issue of a type rating.
I too fly through the bars and scan the basic performance data and try to encourage the same. The degree of success is varied depending on the attitude of the student. I once flew for an airline where the instructors were brutal in insisting the students "fly the flight director." Their scan was very poor. I then showed them how you can stall the a/c with centred F.D's and also fly into the ground with perfect F.D's. This woke them up, the students that is, sadly not the other instructors who continued their blinkered teachings.
Today I find the lack of scan still there, especially when A.P is in CMD. They watch the F.D's and say all is fine. They are doing no more than watching the A.P keep the F.D's centred. They have no idea what the a/c is in fact doing and are not monitoring it. A sad deadly great shame on the training environment.