I agree with you on this Jim. Terminology will be the issue. I am proposing a new word be used, style , for which there is not currently an accepted FAA definition in terms of limitations. So, yes, I am recommending that we write and propose that the endorsements be style oriented. To be tighter than type endorsements, but not so overly tight as make and model endorsements, that will be burdensome to get.
Examples are fixed wing tricycle vs fixed wing taildragger vs trike .
Also, it should be clear in the rule that an instructor may endorse a student to a style based on the training and experience in a similar but not identical craft, at the instructor s discretion. We have been told the exemption will be there until it is no longer needed. When SP is a rule and the active instructors come into CFI SP, then Part 103 pilots will be able to get instruction in-type from them. The exemptions will no longer be needed. It will be a 3 or 4 year transition.