Totally agree. After I took the 2 day Wilderness First Aid course at a local REI, I had the opportunity to assist with cleaning and dressing a wound.  Learning in a classroom is a good start, but even the WFA and WFR scenarios are staged.  They walk you through scenarios and you work out the issues, but there are no real open wounds.  
A while after I took the WFA course, I had a real test when an older lady had a rather large flap of skin ripped open on her forearm.  I cleaned the wound and a former RN who was also there applied a non-stick pad and self-adhesive wrap (coban) to hold it together.  It was very illuminating.  Gauze was a non-starter, because the flap of skin would have stuck to it.  I learned more in 10 minutes... After that I bought more non-stick pads and coban.