"Richard Hertz" no one@no one.com wrote
Poorly. With tricks using the DG and/or the CDI and rules of thumb
and memory aids. I never messed with any of that stuff when I was
learning to fly instruments, because I always considered it easier
just to figure it out, but now as an instructor I find that I must
maintain an arsenal of them.

Yes, my point of view is skewed towards a little more competency.

Ultimately, naviagation competency is performance based. Can you do
it or can't you? If it takes tricks and drill for what ought to be
figured out, it will take longer but ultimately competency can be
achieved. The pilot in question will never be able to design
procedures or even asess their quality, but ultimately it should not
matter. He will perform them as designed, and the TERPS people will
hopefully design them such that they always work.

Then of course there are issues like the LVJ VOR-B, but I try to make
sure my students are warned about those.

I must be stupid then as well. I spent about 50 hours in a frasca trainer
before ever getting in the plane to fly (but then it was quick).

I have no idea why you spent 50 hours in a Frasca. I do know that in
general simulators are harder to fly than the real airplane,
especially a trainer. I know that at 20 hours of IMC time, my
instructor told me to go burn hood time with a safety pilot, because I
was ready to pass the checkride. Of course he told me that not
because there is nothing useful to teach beyond 20 hours, but because
there is nothing to teach past 20 hours that you need to pass the
checkride - and passing checkrides was really all he knew.

I spend the full 40 hours with my students not because I can't get
them through the checkride in less but because I have other
priorities, like not hearing about how they had to be scraped off the
side of a mountain. Perhaps your instructor had similar goals?

Michael