All crap aside, lets get back to the hour issue, I don't buy the fact that people will think that an Instructor who has bashed circuits for 1000's of hours in an R22 is more capable of flying a large fully automated helicopter to land on a Helideck or carrying out other commercial operations.
There are quite a fair few budget airline pilots who went straight in with 250 hours now flying 737's and 757's
In the days of sponsership, trainees would finish with 135 hours in a piston, get instrument rated in a 206 and go straight in to get type rated on a multi engined Super Puma, obviously with an experienced training captain.
As far as I know there were never any problems with that practice.
They would be in the exact same boat as somebody going in there who has 2000 hours on a turbine, with no experience of offshore operations
Of course their is no substitute for experience but
You cannot tell me that hours are the be all and end all, sounds like a protectionist racket going on, old timers looking out for old timers!