Maybe you should rephrase the question. I would like to know who can make the better decisions. Airline pilots have died together with all their pax, because they cannot operate outside of SOPS when a situation calls for it. They are either too scared to make a decision based on a highly volatile environment, for fear of losing their jobs due to non-compliance to SOPs, or they have never actually learnt the art of informed decision making, as the decisions are made FOR an airline pilot all the time.