The FAA Head may well be concerned about cockpit experience - with good reason!
Cockpit experience is a small part of the total equation which leads to an experienced first officer leading to a competent captain.
What is missed is the way that training captains are very often selected from the most experienced personnel with military backgrounds.
I don't question that the miltary spend a fortune on training pilots, but that alone does not make them the best; many civil trained pilots have equally good training skills which generally are currently under utilised, and usually not recognised!