Hi PEI.
I too am of the old school and wish pilots were trained and capable of good airmanship thinking and capable a/c handling. Sadly there is too much trained monkey syndrom with everything written down. Flying seems more of memory test, learn by rote, rather than adapt and do what is best for the situation albeit in an SOP manner.
You discuss captains being mentors for the new guys: the fact is that in EU Loco's the mentoring captain may have only 3000hrs total & 4 years experience in one airline. He is a trained monkey passing on more nuts to the next generation.
Hence we need a simple answer to most questions. Many options are too confusing for some. Just look at the way FCOM's have been diluted. Only what a pilot needs to know. If he can't do anything about it then he doesn't need to know how it works. Land it and get it fixed.
Same with flight training. It's 100rs less to a frozen ATPL than it was 30 years ago. The next thing is an airline pilot's licence where most of the training will be in a simulator and not a Cherokee. It can be argued that you don't need to sail a dinghy to be a cruise liner captain, or drive a go-cart to be a trucker, but you can dilute training and the basics too much.
About the PAPI's, I still find it sad that it is considered by many to be a dodgy approach if there are no G/P aids. Whatever happened to Mk.1 eyeball. That works not matter what a/c you fly. It was a UK CAA requirement to fly non-PAPI approaches, day & night, to complete base training. I think that has gone and even the night requirement is not mandatory under JAR. Amazing!!