Just sharing a thought...
I have been following this thread and is quite interesting to see all the different opinion.
I remember the first days of PPL and how longs were those hours when I was building them... taking people who were splitting the cost with me was something common... but they were someone I knew, or knew someone I already knew. It was like having a bit of O2 in my budget.
Once my Aeroclub (back then) got a C172 stolen, two nice passengers requested to be dropped at a nearby city but all of the sudden there was a mid point unplanned landing in a disused runway with a gun in the head, the pilot was invited to disembark and the nice passengers took the plane. Bye bye... Luckily the pilot walked his way unharmed to a nearby town.
My point is that aside of the legal issue there is another big issue, the safety factor.
I would never take a stranger without proper security screening of himself and the belongings... Is this person carrying a gun, a bag of cash, a bag of illegal drugs? A bag of knives?... Why would you risk your life for something unsafe or dodgy? Why would you take off from an isolated airfield-aeroclub with someone you never met before?
Second, why would you pressure yourself on a get-there-itis situation when you should be focusing only in building hours and gaining experience?.
It is a wonderful thing to help new PPLs build their experience... I like wingly for that, however I expect the CAA or EASA to be a bit more firm.