"The only thing is to fly safe... and no one will ever really care about anything else.."
How wrong you are ! The presumption is that you will always fly safely, however it is most certainly not the case that no one will care about anything else. This is a commercial world and it is important that any flying is profitable and efficient. That requires skills that will make an individual a commercial manager as well as a simple pilot. Factors such as airport closure times, weather, fuel loads, tankering, flight time limitation extensions, crew management, industrial relations, technical deficiences etc etc. These issues are the day to day realities of an airline pilot. Safety is the bedrock of aviation but as any experienced pilot will tell you it may be of paramount importance but is only the goal of all the compromises and previously mentioned commercial problems that will occupy a pilots day to day existence.
You will be expected to operate as safely as possible but people will most certainly care about everything else. This is "real life" my friend !