The handful of hours in basic training is just enough that the result is probably worse than none at all, hence all my ab nitio students spinning/spiraling out of cloud.
And your authority for this is? The concept of a handful of hours is not to make bloggs proficient in IFR flying, but to give him an a focus and understanding of how he could get himself out of the situation should he ever find the need. To say it is worse than none at all is absolute crap. To have had none is to have no first hand experience and leaves just anecdotal advice to fall back on.
And, by the way, there is absolutely no legal basis for the highly dangerous "pilot arranged separation" or whatever you want to call it, that is common in Australia in G.
Perhaps you might find it within that all emcompassing thing called Airmanship. Highly dangerous, .....good grief!!!