Unfortunately some people have a limit to what they can do (I have been in the sim with some truly atrocious pilots) and while they may be trainable to some degree there comes a point where they can't go any further without an unreasonable investment in time.
Correct, so that's the learning curve bit which all airlines look for.
However it should be said its many a time the crap sim instructor which also influences the training time in airlines, and the student has to pick up the slack through no fault of their own, so you have to pick a candadite who is even better still. And then when on the line, the training captain can be someone who has done nothing more than 2 sims and 2 classroom sessions prior to checkout in the airline with no other instructing background whatsoever. So really the problem can be 2 sided.
As for letting the candidate "get on with it", if the candidate needs their full mental capacity just to fly a few turns then I don't think they belong in a flight deck. Flying a B777 or B787 may sound daunting, but it really isn't, not at 200 knots with partial flaps, the EFIS setup with a full compass rose, no flight directors etc.
Does ANZ operate a sterile cockpit policy below 10000ft? Why is that? Or are you so wonderful in ANZ and better than the rest of the world you don't have that policy?
Yeah sure its so easy flying a jet mate, she'll be right, no one really needs training flying one at all. I reckon I can stop a 737 max from nose diving after takeoff too cause I am that good.
Read my point again about EFIS.
The knowledge of how to deal with your distraction in the recruitment process is only known by having prior knowledge of the test. That makes the test biased. Hey thats what you want to do, way to go, I am simply pointing out a fact worthy of attention.