Yes the whole thing is a joke, but if you need an ATPL, then you need to do it.
For those struggling, let me share how I did it quickly, I won't mention companies but am more than happy to reply to PM's if I haven't made it clear enough.
I was fortunate enough to have some 2crew time so I was exempt from the MCC requirement. I tried to do the flight test on a King Air, as is the minimum requirement, however due to the severe lack of 2crew documentation that I could find, the whole thing was a shambles.
This test is really difficult for an individual to do, as CASA want to see the company documents and ops manuals that you will be using.
In the end, I bit the bullet and went to the Sunshine Coast, and did a Citation Mustang type rating, completely 2crew. It was very very through and gave me excellent knowledge.
We combined the Type Rating with the IPC and the ATPL flight test and knocked it out of the park, bingo bango james fanco I now have an ATPL.
There is an enormous amount of work involved and yes, the study is broad, but not crazy.
Aside from it being a massive burden and hard, not to mention the 30k cost, it has given me good knowledge of jet flight, it was fun and in the end, it would have been more expensive not to do it.
I have a jet gig now, which wouldn't have happened without the ATPL, rightly or wrongly.