I had a first instructor who did someting similar to BPF. Travelling (to him) a well-known track and making me lookout for the pylons, trans lines across the valleys, radio towers and other obstacles, while all the time assessing the very marginal weather and re-planning accordingly, instilled a scud-running aversion that's lasted 30 years, and counting.
There's another twist here in Australia, with most pilots being flat-landers and, for many PPLs at least, not having to practise even the basics of mountain flying. As I flew in more places around the world, I learned a lot from patient check pilots in e.g. France and Canada. Those lessons all went into the survival tools kit bag but, if anything, I probably became even more cautious in flight planning and operational decision making.
While not directly relevant to the mountain scud running discussion, I'll admit to being surprised at the weight of resistance expressed in a previous thread to the option of making a precautionary landing in the best area available. You can cobble together a list of objections but, in all cases - and certainly for common light GA aircraft - this remains an infinitely better option than a uncontrolled crash. It's always been high on my options list and deserves to figure more prominently in those thought experiments we all do. Sadly though, a precautionary landing does not appear to have been easily applicable to the tragic accident which triggered this thread.
Of course, those instructor words about controlled crashes into forest canopies as absolute last resorts come to mind as options in some circumstances. When young and callow, I though this was something instructors made up (!) but I can now think of a couple of accidents where people survived by virtue of this strategy by the pilot.
In retrospect, I can see that the role of the instructor in forcing at least thought experiments is crucial. But building in some level of practical demonstration, in a few high stress situations, is likely to add greatly to the effectiveness of pilot decision making. There is of course a role for instructors in simply passing on local area hints and tips, but I think this is less significant than helping to develop good judgement.