To answer specifically to Dick Deadeye objections...
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There are means of identifying those pilots who perform best as F/O and are potentially upgradable to captain sooner than others... This selection is derived from captain's reports, performance in simulator recurrent training, and in line operations. You see, our F/Os are, when performing above average, given a captain type rating, and thereby, are given the opportunity to occupy the LHS, and practice their future upgrade to full captain status.
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As to the effect on the morale of F/Os, bypassed by direct entry captains, I hardly believe that it ever was the case when I got hired, alongside others. My airline had at times been forced to hire direct entry, not having a number of candidates who were upgradable. These F/Os did maintain their overall seniority. Here in Argentina, pay is a function of seniority from date of hire, and of course, position, not by size or weight of aircraft. I have merely 13 years seniority. I know some F/O, even on the 737, with 25+ years with this company, having a salary nearly equal to mine...
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My colleagues and crews (F/Os included) considered me well enough to recommend me to a promotion to check captain, and further, to manager of flight training, as I have been instructor for many years in airline service (with PanAm). I might be just a plain average pilot, but my reputation as instructor is second to none...
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When the A-340 arrived to this airline, they hired 18 direct entry captains due to the fact that these Airbus were an entirely different breed of technology... and I did not see any discontempt among our crews...
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Shall I also mention, that many major world carriers, such as ANA, JAL, SIA, KAL, MAS, Asiana, Cathay, Emirates, all rely on a large proportion of direct entry captains. No need to mention that these are all succesful airlines, and not only because of geography.
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As to why I did not join i.e. ANA or JAL in Japan, as many PanAmigos did, despite much higher salaries, is because I did not want to suffer 9 months of re-education (and brainwashing) to the Japanese culture and style of training, in a minuscule hotel room in Tokyo. Buenos Aires was always my favorite layover, of all the many places I did fly to... When I arrived here, I received, for free, 6 weeks of intensive Spanish language tutoring, and felt absolutely welcome by everyone, from airline management, down to the people in my street.
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And I prefer Argentina beef dinners with pasta and wine, to sushi with sake...
No mad cows here, they do not need psychiatric treatment...
Happy contrails