G'day hiwaytohell,
I spoke to one of the LAMEs at work yesterday and before getting his type-rated B1/B2, he held both as non type-rated licenses and had gotten them under the Part 66 system. Basically, he said exactly what you just said: don't deal with CASA, deal with the 147 MTO, they'll do all the admin for you, you just complete your diploma and that's it.
So in terms of how far off getting a license: I've got 2 exams, 2 essays and one competency to fill out. Then wait for CASA to issue the license. So maybe 2 months on my side and who knows how long on CASA's side.
One operator I spoke to recently would have taken me on except that they'd recently lost 1 or 2 LAMEs and were right on the threshold for the LAME:AME ratio.
Cheers,
John