Well Its true that experience is exeperience no matter if you paid for it but let me point out that before all this self-sponsored b.s. was around people use to have to go through a screen to get employed and then get their experience, but nowadays it seem like the only thing you need to be employed is a bag full of cash, and no matter if you can't fly to save your life, youŽll be employed. So you might end up with a guy with 800 hrs (it may not be the case) that might have been sitting on the right hand seat of a jet becuse it was good for the airlineŽs budget, but been told to do, touch or say nothing, because the captain (very wisely) might have thought that he wasnŽt ready to fly.
Off course he could have been an excellent pilot, or maniac, but since there was no screening (olny money) how do we know