411A I don't see how to accept your view that a (decent, upstanding) Captain doesn't benefit from CRM training let alone Rananim's that any (decent, upstanding) pilot won't need a CRM course in his life.
As I see it, to support these views would require either a belief that CRM has not benefited our industry or a belief that somehow today’s crews are naturally better than they used to be!
To support these views one would have to believe that CRM is a static and unchanging field with no productive research being carried out and none of its findings being brought into the training arena. One would have to believe that today’s increasingly global pilot workforce is somehow innately aware of cultural differences when they travel far and wide. One would have to believe that just because he is a good bloke to have a beer with he will be a good Captain/FO/SO/FEng.
I can't support any of these premises! Now I will add that some CRM instruction can be of little use, any teacher can fail to get the message home/use the correct materials/pitch to the wrong level etc and some who teach just aren’t made to, but at least a bad CRM course brings up CRM and may make people think about it!
To belittle the achievements of CRM by suggesting that a 'modicum' of anything renders it useless is, IMHO, unhelpful. It creates the gaps for those who need enhanced CRM skills but think they don't to dismiss CRM training when it could help them and those they fly with. Even if you don't need better CRM, even if you are the wonderpilot, then at least your presence on a good CRM course and your input to it can help others on that course.
We have all been on courses we feel we didn’t benefit from but I believe CRM can be valuable and that it has a place. Rounding on CRM training as an entity and shooting it down over the Captain/FO debate would, I feel, be a mistake.