Very nice rant, I must say!! It's only since going to work overseas I've been made aware of the sheer nonsense some companies and countries put their own flight crew through on their
"divine" journey to the immortal rank of Captain.
What's up with that??? By the time they do manage to get promoted, they will be so bitter that any F/O unlucky enough to have to fly with them will surely be told over and over again how long it will take before they themselves get promoted. My own experience suggests the longer it takes for some individuals to be promoted to Captain, the more anal they can be expected to be in the cockpit. They develop, for whatever reason, a superiority complex that everyone else then has to deal with.
Too bad really that it has to be like this, there is some genuine talent out there that would do well if only given the chance. For the companies out there still practicing this sort of path to promotion, what can I say? They may, in the end, be the architects of their own staffing troubles.