I can speak from experience - my first commercial operation was with a borrowed AOC and the advice from the CP consisted of 'Yeah you'll be right mate off ya go', so off I went doing scenic flights in and around the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, including out of Katoomba. Now can you spot the problem with that ?
So Wanna Zone, with due respect, what you are saying is either, you did ok but you are an ace pilot and others might not be so good, or; you were in over your head and didn't deserve a CPL? Which one is it? As a new commercial pilot I was cut a huge amount of slack from several operators. I still appreciate the opportunities I was given. Trust that would be almost unheard of in these nanny state days. Personally I would like to see it return.
Outandabout, it is a long bow to draw, your comparison. There are 200 hour pilots who can be trusted and who could this job very well. If you want to dwell on the worst case scenario, feel free. I don't agree. I would tend to cut a bit more slack, like I was given in the very start of my career.
Deregulation of simple scenic flights is, IMHO, a good idea.