Very well put Creampuff.
Asking around locally I would say the majority of PPL and RAAus pilots flying into a private strip are still unaware of the requirement to transmit on area, and if they are aware, normally they don't because they don't want to clutter up the frequency, or maybe they are shy. Most listen to 126.7, some do that and monitor area.
Lets face it there is no traffic congestion around the strips in question, so just keeping your eyes open will suffice.
If everyone were to go by the rules and transmit on area frequency it would add to traffic congestion and could cause problems as Dick said. It isn't because, as Dick said in post #3, not many are following the rule.
I don't think this will change. So the general flying community are using common sense and making the system work!