If you're a real pilot, whether commercial or private, you'd understand all this and know that airline pilots, any pilots, do not fly as close to thunderstorms "as we dare". Do you think we just make all this up as we go and just guess or that there's a John Wayne in every pilot just waiting to let loose? Airlines have ops manuals which provide clear guidance on TCU avoidance, usually 20 miles from the red returns and more if there are hooks, curls or steep gradients in the returns. Bear in mind what I said about radar as well, although as a pilot you should know this already as part of your kit. From such knowledge, as a pilot you're pretty quick in assigning blame to crews and setting your hair on fire over an incident the cause of which no one has yet any knowledge.
For the most part but I have flown with plenty of idiots who flew like John Wayne, we are after all human.