BUT I don't see how you could loosen it
much without opening a ton of loopholes that will be quickly used and will
result in accidents that cause a whole new set of even more stringent rules
to be enacted.

No rule is free of loopholes. I posted elsewhere (a week ago?) my
proposal; it was essentially to go back to what we had twenty years ago.
A private pilot may accept compensation up to the total amount of the
flight, but no more. He is not required to make any minimum payment,
but the passengers may not pay more (in sum) than the flight costs. The
pilot cannot make a profit (in the dictionary sense).

I would add that all passengers must be informed that the flight is
under the "private pilot" rules, not the "commercial pilot" rules which
are more stringent in regards to safety. (I don't think that it is
necessary to go into what the rules really are - the point is to prevent
mis-representation of the venue)

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no universe.
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