Numbers, I really agree with some of your sentiments.
The old public service Ethos, take something that should be relatively straightforward, and complicate the crap out of it, because if it works
there's no need to fix it because of "Unintended" consequences. This is the old make work scam.
I sometimes wonder what the true cost of the implementation of Part 61 ended up being. It was McComics last hurrah rushed through at the last minute before he departed the scene, the last laugh of an angry man, and huge finger to the industry.
Then I wonder if it was really the old public service ethos, create a monster, then sit back for an endless fix it program keeping everyone gainfully, or should I say un-gainfully, employed attempting to slay the monster. Whole public service empires have been built on this little scam.
The cost of attempting to fix the unfixable part 61, will I have no doubt, vastly exceed the cost of the original implementation.