Honestly the written test is nothing but a fool/non-serious dilettante filter. The fact that it is multiple choice, only 60 questions, asks things that any sane person would lookup, etc is proof of that. Its main worth is making most of us students go through some sort of ground school instruction and become familiar with some of the books and what they contain so we know where to go for learning and to answer specific questions. By the time you go to take the test both the student and the FAA have already gotten most of the value out of the exercise.
To actually test something like pilotage on a written test would need teaching staff to grade essay answers which is more time consuming and introduces lots of subjectivity. Asking what an underlined radio frequency inside a flight service box on the VFR chart means is pedantic and doesn't prove you can plan a flight route whatsoever. The first few times you flip to the appendix or instructions that clearly tell you what it means - something anyone can do at their own leisure.
The system depends on your CFI, DPE, and personal responsibility to determine if you are capable of being a pilot. If you want to play Maverick no amount of multiple choice written testing is going to help you.