Whirls if I may.
is that I don't think aviation is prestigious
I think it depends on who is doing the observing.
As for the rest of you. When I fly with F/O's I couldn't care less how they got there. All that matters is that they do the job that they're getting paid for.
If Daddy has paid for you it may not make you a worse pilot than the next person. Conversely it doesn't mean that you're any better. And vice versa for someone who has held down 4 jobs and brought up a family at the same time as completing a flying course. Basically all that means is that (nearly) everything that has happened before you get the job is pretty irrelevant when you fly with me.
So lets all put a sock in it and stop with the oneupmanship school ground bull****.
Everyone, even the pro's, have bad days and worse days. Everyone makes mistakes. The trick, and the sign of a true professional, is to mitigate those mistakes and learn from them. In general I find that the people who don't learn from mistakes are the ones with the I'm better than you attitude. They are the ones who are more likely to end up as a smoking hole in the side of a hill.