2Donkeys
I think that a PPL/IR will have a different reason to do it from someone doing a CPL/IR or ATPL. Most likely it will be for intensive leisure flying and/or for business travel. And the money involved in that will mean a decent plane to go with it - every current PPL/IR I know falls into that category. These people aren't usually skint. As for kit, a GNS430/530 is the baseline - how many miles is that from the 1960s syllabus?
Whereas a CPL/ATPL person is going to be looking for an airline or other commercial job, and most of them seem variously skint, to the point of doing a FI for a £10/day retainer, for a few years, on the way there. Plenty of time to do the exams!
Some of the syllabus I saw seems completely bizzare, e.g. the operation of AND/OR logic gates. Great... throw in a bit of college electronics here and there. As one 60+ ATPL with 25k hours said to me, it's great for sorting out the men from the sheep. But necessary, let alone relevant? You could just have a bog standard IQ test or one of those specialised "engineering aptitude" tests.
The PPL/IR syllabus should be tailored to the private pilot's requirements. But with the regulatory bodies being stuffed with airline pilot types, and presumably with the whole of JAA member countries having to agree...?