I'll second that. In twelve years of professional flying, I would have characterised my experience as probably 75% instructing & 25% charter/RPT/other types of flying. Whilst it's worth noting that a good portion of my instructing time was training airline cadets in multi-IFR/LOFT exercises, I don't think I was ever less equipped for stepping up to jet RPT simply because I hadn't done my rite of passage by slumming it in a C206/Baron/402 up north for a few years. An instructing background provided me with strong inter-crew communications skills, a very strong background knowledge in procedures, techniques, regs etc, and in spite of the popular argument that instructors can't fly because their student is at the controls more than they are, a strong feel for the aeroplane - because you were the instructor, thus you had to be a cut above the rest. In other words, if you couldn't get it right, what hope did the student have?!?
Nevertheless, and in fairness to those who come from the "traditional" charter background, I think everyone has something to contribute. We all aspire to the same goal, it's just a question of which road we take to get there. Still, it's nice to see more guys from an instructing background finally being given their due.