"there have always been hoops...."
Yup, but for some reason they didn't seem so darned expensive as they do today. I don't recall ever using anything I sweated over studying for the multiple ATPL's I used to hold that I ever used in a practical sense. Even so they were interesting exercises and certainly gave one a sense of achievement if not relief when you passed.
There has always been a requirement for an ATPL flight test in OZ. It was just recognised that the standards required for those that held an IR rating were higher than for the ATPL. Appendix 111 of CAO 40 if my memory serves me correctly, which it increasingly doesn't (old age is a terrible thing) provided the standard, the test was waived if you held an IR rating. I did my test in a tiger moth, ten quid an hour, bloody highway robbery.