Hear, hear, Karl...
To play devil's avocado do you amateur aircraft engineers condone amateurs doing what your job is and do you think they can do it better than you can?
Doctors, accountants, solicitors, teachers etc etc, be it whatever. We can all read up on a subject and profess to be capable of doing the job but is it really better than the professionals?
The ability to do most jobs efficiently and correctly is through knowledge and that is best gained through experience - and that entails doing it all the time, not a couple of times a year.
I too speak as an LAE, PPL and aircraft owner (well until recently but watch this space).