That is a very insightful analysis. I remember an amazing article in Flying magazine by Len Morgan describing his 720 transition, which was basically self taught. As he put it he had never reached cruising altitude in the airplane, before he first flew with passengers. Nothing unusual there I hear you say. But remember there was no sim and the training was done in the airplane. He was then assigned the least popular base being the old Denver airport (short runway) in the middle of winter! No namby pamby line training. Having survived that he felt pretty qualified.