So the general consensus is that the answer to my original question is, "No, schools don't teach students to be pilots, just to pass the exams."
I personally dont agree with that as I have seen clubs go the extra mile. And you could consider training for am IR(Restricted) rating, or a cross-channel checkout as a formal school led way of getting further than just passing the exams.
Which is kinda what I thought. And I think its wrong. You can see it from the purely commercial point of view of the school, but its why so many PPLs give up flying soon after they start - they're not really equipped to go on and enjoy their flying.
That I do agree. In fact I would go further and say it is not the training, and not even the inclusion of not being shown something like SkyDemon as part of the official syllabus, its the fact that a lot of flying school aircraft are not always as attractive as an equivelant privately maintained aircraft, and the whole charging scheme, coupled with the scheduling schemes where the previous renter came back late with empty fuel tanks, much more of a reason to give up x hours after passing. If I didnt get into part-ownership of my Piper Archer II, then I'd have given up a long time ago.
Edit: I was also going to say that using a whizz-wheel, hoping for correctly forecast wind/weather information, and arching your back over the instrument panel constantly hunting for towns and lakes etc in my opinion is not the fun part of flying. Having good skills but coupled with use of some cockpit GPS device, and confidence in it as a situational awareness tool leaves you to a) look out the window more for other aircraft and not things on the ground b) find the fun in the flying, and it should be fun.