It seems I always have a minority opinion, so no surprise here. I agree that pilots should always stay within their abilities. BUT...

So many here completely ignore what has changed in the past 25 years. A large and increasing number of VFR pilots own VFR airplanes that contain a set of avionics that includes: 1 or 2 Dynon Skyview HDX1100 screens with modern WAAS GPS, autopilot, ADS-B out, ADS-B in, etc (or Garmin or other equivalents).

This means (assuming the pilot is familiar with his own avionics):
- the pilot always knows where he is within 10, 20, 30 meters.
- the pilot can observe his position, altitude, direction and speed on a moving map and/or 3D synthetic vision.
- the pilot can observe the position, altitude, direction and speed of every nearby airplane (unless he is in a canyon or between mountains) via ADS-B out/in.
- the pilot can push a single LEVEL button to tell the autopilot to fly straight and level (in case he becomes disoriented, or isn't sure).
- the pilot can tell the autopilot to take him to any nearby airport (or far away airport for that matter).

This is not even REMOTELY similar to what pilots used to face with a conventional 6-pack or 8-pack of instruments.

Therefore, I have to agree with the original post.

One way I look at this from my VFR perspective is the following. I have listened to dozens of youtube videos where IFR pilots fly IFR routes in, around and to large airports. They follow a blizzard of complex instructions given to them by ATC. Many of these pilots seem to love becoming a slave to ATC, and love being able to follow such complex procedures. I have ZERO interest in this, since my only interest in flying is to fly on spectacular days through gorgeous scenery. Because of this, I have never gotten even near getting trapped in IMC... not once.

However, I am a realist. Just because I never found myself in even remotely marginal conditions (even during many night flights)... doesn't mean it can't happen to me, or won't happen to me.

And so, my takeaway is the following. I still have ZERO interest in landing at any ATC controlled airport... ever. After all, about 95% of airports have no control towers at all. Since I hate cities, and stay away from cities (even when I'm on the ground)... I have no need or desire to land in cities. Which pretty much means "at ATC airports". So screw all that hyper-complex nonsense that I see other pilots practice until they're blue in the face. I am a "live and let live" and "to each their own" sort of guy, so those other pilots are welcome to love IFR flying and IFR training. And seriously, if they want to fly for a living, they almost need to be competent at everything IFR.

Given what I said above, if I ever get myself trapped above the clouds or otherwise find myself faked into IMC... what do I want to be able to accomplish? The answer should be obvious.

#1: I want to be able to fly to a small airport and land. So step one is to find an airport that is clear near ground level, no matter how thick the soup may be at higher altitudes in the area. That should be possible with ADS-B and/or tuning in to ATIS or equivalent at every nearby airport and/or asking flight service (or even some ATC far away) to find me an airport within a couple hundred miles that has good visibility near the ground.

#2: I want to be able to fly to whatever airport I select and safely fly to the appropriate runway. When I get close (and within 200 or 300 or 500 feet of the ground), if I can see the airport, I can land safely. If I am still in soup at 200, 300, 500 feet AGL... then on to the next airport that might work.

Obviously I don't want to get vertigo and fly into the ground, or a mountainside, or into an uncoordinated stall-spin. But I had no problem with that during the 2 or 3 hours I spent under the hood during my VFR training. For some reason I am opposite most people... I instinctively trust instruments more than my own sensations. But, that doesn't matter much with an autopilot that has a LEVEL button, much less an autopilot that will fly me to anywhere I want to go. I friend of mine ran a test where he had his autopilot fly actually land his airplane on the runway. He only took over manual control 10 or 20 feet above the runway threshhold to flare and land the airplane. I wouldn't let an autopilot actually land my airplane, but how close can we get?

So I very much DO see IFR as two very distinct sets of activities. The first is to avoid becoming disoriented and crashing the airplane (which the autopilot can do if you can't or don't want to). The second is to fly the airplane to somewhere the pilot can land. It seems like 99% of the time this simply means "fly though a limited stretch of clouds to get to a nearby airport" or "drop below a deck of clouds you flew over wrongly thinking you'd find a hole before your destination".

I don't see why full IFR training is necessary for pilots who never want to go anywhere near any ATC controller directed airports, but might someday need to pass through a deck or patch of clouds to get to a rural airport or airstrip. To convince me I'm wrong, someone will need to explain to me why I need to know all those very complex processes to land at a large ATC controlled airport... when I want to fly to one of the 95% of airports and airstrips that has no control tower or ATC at all. Maybe someone can do that. But I doubt it. Go ahead and give it a try.

I vote for EFR.