No argument with any of that... for the private pilot, as you say.
I suspect that the ground exams could be relaxed somewhat for the private pilot, but my own suggestion would be that this should take the form of permitting 100% self-study, as with the US. In this way, people don't have to take time out of work just to go to refresher courses.
Currently, the time off paid employment on top of time spent flight training is what puts a lot of would-be IRs off.
2D