Zoltan
Confucious he say: Man who p!ss into wind, get feet wet!
The crediting of FO hours towards a higher licence issue has always been there. Long before you started flying mate, and even when obtaining an ATPL (ALTP in those days) required much more experience.
The issue is quite simple: the instructor IS the PIC and the FO IS NOT! Your point regarding left and right seat misses me completely since competence is not seat related. What is a fact is that a CPL FO is authorised to operate under the supervision of his ATPL captain and therefor is given 50% credit. The instructor is the PIC supervising his student and therefor gets 100%. We all went through it. My advice to you is that you stop whining and do the same.
Your logic concerning when things start getting hairy.... has no foundation nor basis of fact. Your claim that Experience counts boys is true. I however sincerely doubt that you have reached the point where that experience has been reached.
Freightboss
You've clearly misread point 4.
As one who had to use this law (many years ago) to have my ALTP issued, I know. The key is: entitled to be credited with not more than 50 per cent of the total flight time during which he or she acted as such.
That clearly say that an FO will be credited with 50% of his total FO time!