I learned to fly with a school that unfortunately no longer exists. It fell into the category of more like HQ than HA. The instructors were mostly young and there wasn't a white shirt in sight. They made flying fun and we used to socialise out of hours. In fact I made some good friends and had some memorable experiences. They understood that most of us would go no further than the PPL(H) and that we weren't going to be flying gods. At the time I was in serious danger of buying my own machine but never quite took that step.
More recently I had been doing some continuation training/renewal with another organisation. They just knocked all the fun out of the pastime such that I DON'T FLY ANY MORE!
I am sure that there are some who would be pleased that I no longer fly as it wouldn't suit their 'professional' image to have somebody who isn't 'one of the boys' in command of an aircraft.
I suspect that there is a market for both types of schools but it does seem from the outside that the HQ model actually makes some money (I have never been there but my betting is that their car park has some very expensive metal in it) and the atmosphere attracts the more outgoing and adventurous types, just the sort that some don't want in their airspace.