but now you are saying students may take lessons in a plane that exceeds
the higher upper limit ?

I quit,,,,,,


You can take lessons in anything that allows commercial operation or that
you own! The limitation is you can't solo in something exceeding SP
criteria unless you have a medical. Any lesson you take for PPL counts for
SP as far as time etc. it's just the practical and written test are
different (and number of hours).
So if you want you can do all your duel in a Cessna 150 (or 210P ;-) ). But
when you come to solo you will need a SP legal plane and a sign off.
Possibly even a single seater if your cfi is willing to sign you off! ;-0
John