In the UK many hundreds if not thousands learned to fly with the Ripmax Trainer + an OS LA 46. I see some shops still selling the RT for 66 quid. It had no vices and handled windy conditions well which was essential in the UK. In fact I would only stop training if we needed 3/4 throttle or better to make headway into wind.

But the best aircraft I ever used was a giant Telemaster 150 " span from memory and it was built light. Pupils had lots of thinking time as it did everything very slowly.