There is a lot here about the instructor being willing to spend the time here, often though, when the weather is good it is a case of 30 - 40mins brief and preflight, hours flight, 15 mins debrief and then next student - often you would run late, which is why most instructors/ex instructors bolt their lunch! In this time any decent instructor WILL try and instill as much airmanship etc as they can. What the students need to do is come in when the weather is actually too bad to fly, this is when the instructors have the time to sit and chat more, unfortunately most students see this as a waste of time.
Very true! But you need a club with a 'social side' for this to work well. Lancs Aero Club at Barton in the 70s (and for a couple of decades after that) was such a place, and I learned a great deal on non-flying days by turning up anyway and buying the instructor a coffee in the clubhouse, or chatting to experienced pilots in the clubhouse or working on aeroplanes in the hangars.
I sense that back then we were aware that to get the most 'bang for buck' we had to take all such opportunities (which only cost the price of a coffee!), and to steer our training to what we felt we needed to learn as we also had many different instructors. In other words, we were 'in charge' of the situation rather than being led by the hand.
Doesn't work at a 'flying school' with no such facilities.