Let's be honest here. Earning an IR is not terribly useful if you are not going to use it. And you can't use it, much less stay current or proficient in an airplane that is not IFR-capable. There is a sentiment that earning the IR will make you a better pilot--maybe--but those gains will lapse rapidly without regular reinforcement. Quite frankly, the point of having the IR is to use it regularly. The IR enhances safety-of-flight if and only if you are prepared to deploy those skills by requesting and flying an IFR clearance for a trip in MVFR or IFR conditions, or escaping from a potentially hazardous MVFR or IFR situation by filing IFR to avoid an increasingly bad flight situation. The idea that IFR training one completed years ago--in which one does not maintain regular competence--is going to save one in a VFR-into-IMC incident is questionable.
What IFR means for most often recreational GA pilots is the ability to dramatically reduce the stress and safety hazard of making trips in MVFR, and that can both enhance safety-of-flight as well as slightly increase dispatch reliability. It is a lot more comfortable (and safer!) to be flying on top of a 9000 foot undercast in smooth air with good vis than grinding along in the bumps under a 2000-3000 foot overcast and 5 mile visibility. Popping through layers to get on top or between layers is IFR-XC gold. Even flying in benign clag and rain for 3 hours is better than being AOG.
If one wants to earn and use an instrument rating, the ideal situation is to train in the airplane that you will eventually use for IFR operations, or one that is equipped very similarly. That will increase operational familiarity and ingrain the appropriate scan and knobology, which initially resembles juggling a chicken, bowling ball, and kitchen knife.
Eventually, you figure out how to do it safely ad relatively effortlessly.
If you have a capable plane AND a rating, you will use them.
A reality now is that the IFR system is very GPS-centric, and becoming more so as the VOR system is reduced in size to the minimum operating network. I haven't followed a VOR anywhere VFR or IFR in nearly 20 years except in training and IPCs. I have flown a few ILS approaches at metro airports, but otherwise its nearly 100% GPS, which is a godsend with LPV approaches at non-metro locations. I know that one probably doesn't want to hear that you need IFR GPS in a modern IFR-equipped plane, but with VOR/ILS only, IFR capability is significantly limited unless you frequent only large airports and they haven't shut down all your area VORs. In Central and Western NY where I am based, quite a few VORs are either temporarily out of service, permanently out of service, decommissioned, or scheduled for decommissioning. When they go down now, the FAA usually isn't in a hurry to fix or flight check them in our parts.
