Lots of issues at play as usual. I’ll throw a few random views into the mix.
Most of us heavily criticised the MPL but what we fail to acknowledge is that a traditional IR/ME can for many people serve as negative training. Students are trained for a career where they'll be flying a 400+ KTS jet, yet 75% of the training is done on aircraft that move at 90-120kts, flying single pilot and where you are forgiven for lack of energy management and perception of speed/time.
The idea is that after 150 hours of this training they stick you inside a fixed base sim where someone equally detached from airline flying experience teaches you the principles of multi-crew operations. Many student pilots are exposed right here but it’s too late now. The skills are supposed to be transferrable to any aircraft – This is simply not true in my opinion.
Finally, any experienced Freelance TRE will secretly tell you that something like 2 out of the last 5 licenses they sign, they do so reluctantly. If they are also responsible for sim checks at screening, they would simply not be able to fill the two front seats of an airliner if they applied the expected standard. Most sim performances I’ve seen since I left a big UK airline have been shocking and left me wondering how some people could’ve made it this far. It’s the industry’s dirtiest secret that something like 30% of people flying commercial airliners probably shouldn’t be doing so.