You are absolutely right that putting our lives on hold while waiting for PR is unbearable, which reminds me of an article recently circulated in the blog.
Speaking from a perspective of an CEC applicant, at the moment, while waiting PR endless processing time:
First, I cannot start my PhD studies w/o PR, because it's very expensive (despite financial assistance from the university)
Second, I cannot apply for government related jobs (BTW, these are the majority of jobs I can apply after my Master's degree), because for some weird reason all my applications (w/o having PR) are turning out to be unsuccessful
However, it is worth mentioning that Canadian immigration system is probably the most efficient in the world