Doodybutch wrote:
1) If you can't pass a physical or you don't feel like getting a license and
you feel like flying anyway and you are willing to accept the liability
personally without any insurance, exactly what's to stop you from taking
this path?

Very little. It's unlikely anybody will ever ask to see your
paperwork unless you do something stupid.

2) How many pilots do you think are doing just this? From reading the FAA
accident reports, I suspect it's more than a few.

I'm sure it is. Just like driving a car without insurance or with a
suspended license. Or practicing medicine, doing electrical work,
etc. Just the other day, I heard a rumor that a local barbershop had
people cutting hair without a license. A barbershop that I used to
frequent. For all I know, my folicles have been violated multiple
times.