Yes, the best instructors are the old grey ex airline pilots, usually.
The reason there are so many naff instructors is because you need a JAA CPL to be paid for instructing.
"Instructor" or "Examiner" quasi qualifications like a CRI or CRE are no good if you are to be paid (and in any case cannot be used for initial PPL training).
And "nobody" is going to do a CPL, with its 14 exams (CPL/IR being the minimum meaningful option) and the related crap like spending time at a professional pilot FTO, just to scratch out a living doing flight training.