IO,
just my opinion, but in any profession worthy of the name, background knowledge is always valuable. You may never need to know that the aoa on a downgoing wing increases - until you're in a situation of having to recover a wing drop close to stalling aoa in your 747 or Airbus. Even then, you don't need to know why the wing drop will worsen when you attempt to recover using opposite aileron. You may have time, before you spear in to the ground (avoiding schools, hospitals and houses, like a good little pilot), to wonder whether using a judicious amount of rudder might have been better. But you don't need to know that, do you? Surely it's all just a plot to feather the nests of the CAA/FAA/JAA and the flight schools, isn't it?
If you want to be taken seriously as a pilot, and you want the profession to have the gravitas that justifies its relatively highly paid status, do you not think that it needs qualifications worthy of that status? Of course, if all you want is for flying to be regarded as a manual trade like, say, bus driving, then let's have fewer, easier and cheaper exams. That'd be good - everyone could be an airline pilot then! But do you really want that? Bus drivers don't get paid much and, last time I checked, I didn't get the impression that their occupation was held in high regard by the rest of the world. No disrespect to bus drivers (who do a fairly rigorous driving examination as well), but I'd rather leave things as they are.
Of course, you could always stick to MS Flight Simulator - no exams, no pay, and no pain when you screw up!