I think that the posters on here are in danger of using one very bad (and frustrating) example to question all students.
There are some really brilliant students and PPls and some really bad ones you would never even send your worst enemy up with never mind loved ones.
Between those extremes are a vast variety most who respect their own limitations and fly within those limitations and then there are those who don't
the problem is that being issued a PPL we are qualified and to the outside world we are pilots to a standard which must mean we are good to our unknowing PAX.
The reality is what my CFI told me when I got my PPL 30 years ago!
"This is a bit of paper which licenses you to start to learn to fly on your own and that learning never stops"
Even now I look back and wonder how I survived some of the mistakes I made
Maybe an initial PPL should mean you carry an L plate for your PAX to see or we should have a restricted PPL ?
Even now I meet some pilots who are so good so professional in what they do that I feel humbled by them and look back to when I struggled to afford 12 hours a year and shudder at the word qualified pilot and how many people i flew who trusted those words " qualified Pilot"
Hence why its so important to fly within your limits, the aircraft limits and to know what those limits are as Mother luck isn't with all of us all the time
Pace