Uplinker
Incidents like those have very little if anything to do with application of academic knowledge. Poor SOP adherence, lack of or poor training and lack of basic CRM skills were all contributory factors. I'd venture that not knowing the lift and drag equations, which direction the centre of pressure moves when flaps are extended, and how the engines produce thrust weren't.
It is absurd to think of airline flying as an academic pursuit. If anything it makes far more sense to view initial training and time spent as a FO as a kind of apprenticeship. Proposing to artificially increase barriers to entry is both wholly unrealistic and simply a case of pilots trying to justify the difficulty and intrinsic worth of the job to themselves.