AAR in the VC10 was a vital skill
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I was instructing on the Ten when we started to get the first pilots through the RAF training system who bypassed BFT and arrived at the OCU with just 3:45 formation time on the Firefly. It was a big shock and some needed extra hours learning a skill on an aircraft costing ten grand an hour to operate to save a couple of grand on the cheaper aircraft. Savings at the early stage lead to far greater expenditure down the line. It seems to me that MFTS with it's cut back syllabus to save cash is going to cost the customer in the long run.
My airline went down this line being an early adopter of MPL (Multi Pilot Licence) training where it was possible to have a pilot in an airliner with less than 100 hours in their logbook. It was intended these new cadets, having been heavily versed in the company mantra would able to operate to the new philosophy where SOPs could replace experience and airmanship. It turned out the base cost of MPL only offered a small saving on the cost of a CPL - but the accountants had done their job and MPL was in. However, the increased cost of extra training after failed checks and added engineering with the cost of hard landing inspections and aircraft down time meant that it was a false saving. Having been an early adopter of MPL, we are now an early rejecter of the system. All our cadets now go through the CPL system.