Dick.
A major foreign air force found that applicants IQ's changed very little with age but accepted re-applications. You go through the whole procedure of course and you get a little debrief. People mature. So I think your points about HJJ very interesting.
Incidentally, I read a quote in a commercial aviation magazine, "Accident-prone people usually don't stay at the sharp end for very long....Often they are promoted to management!"
I don't know if that is relevant to the above.