Genghis the Engineer wrote: have a funny flying background, but will give this a go.
Not everybody is after getting a CPL in min hours, personally I can't win those min hours/min time challenges as it took me 13 years to get a full PPL after almost 200h airborne
A bit close to your flying path Genghis
Started flying at age 17 as military cadet in a third world country, 70h in SEP/SET with two instructors both were aged between 20's-30s, hard personality to learn from, plus no licence or whatever...then civilian life switch to full-time engineering with no time or money spared to fly again
Then back flying gliders after 5 years, I flew with many instructors as the number of 5 min flights off the winch
One year later, I started training for a legacy French version of the LAPL (called BB) with a tug pilot/instructor who did freelance teaching on his own aircraft, best learning experience I had
Later in the UK, I went to a large commercial ATO to get a full PPL, it never worked out due to work commitments, aircraft availability, instructors rota, factory style training and London weather
Finally, I found a guy in the UK who owns his aircraft and can teach on it (+ not ex-military or ex-airliner), good personality fit and same perception of flying as me, so I went as far as PPL + Night + IMC with him...