Fact is that even if your brain is short circuited by fear of death, that's exactly in those moments that pilots should be real pilots, I mean resource to INSTINCTS, BASIC INSTICTS.
And how do you suppose we *should* go ahead and make sure we got people with the "right stuff" up front? Are you suggesting we simply strap trainees into an actually crashing plane and see if they can save it by using their superior instincts? You can't know things that cannot be effectively tested and anyone who thinks they will certainly keep functioning rationally and effectively in an incident is kidding themselves.