Instrument rating??

There are a lot of older pilots who would agree with your friend. You run
into them a lot on rec.aviation.ifr and rec.aviation.piloting.

You could use the same logic for learning to fly in the first place: if you
are not going to stay current and fly a lot then it is not worth it and may
even be dangerous. Taken to extreme, the argument can be made that if you
never learn to fly then you will probably never die piloting an airplane.

A lot of the pilots who die (perhaps even most of them) flying VFR into IMC
conditions have instrument ratings. Maybe they were overconfident, rusty, or
some combination of the two.

The answer to that, of course, is to get your instrument rating and stay
current. Don't tackle weather that neither you nor your equipment are
prepared to handle. Use common sense, and getting an instrument rating will
make you a better and safer pilot. If you have no common sense, then it just
gives you one more way to kill yourself.

So, yeah, your friend is full of it.