<<My personal opinion is that IFR is only for professional pilots who
receive a lot of recurrent training...... Actual (IMC) IFR is not for single engine, low time pilots
who dream of going IMC.>>

I disagree. You don't have to fly in icing conditions for the IFR rating to be of value. Here in California near the coast we get a marine layer moving in almost every night between the beginning of May to the end of October. Some days it burns off and others it persists all day. Trying to fly under it VFR is not as safe as just going through it IFR. During the winter months, we get valley fog which spills over towards the coast. Some days the visibility is 1 mile all day, but the fog layer is only about 400 to 600 ft thick with blue sky above. We can have weeks of this fog at a time with 30 to 40 minutes or more wait time to get out special VFR, but you go to the head of the line if you are IFR (both going out and coming back in).

I just spent about 50 hours training for my IFR rating in my 360. It was very challenging in the 360 and a lot of fun. I don't plan to fly anywhere near any icing, but a little valley fog or marine layer isn't going to stop me anymore.

Mike Reinath
N3602M