Thanks, Gengis, for taking your time explaining me your thoughts about pilots training. In fact, I'm not favoring MPL over ab-initio training, but would resist in expressing such rigorous comments about flying with one of them.
I completly agree with you that flying is always more demanding than simulator flying, and that a simulator never can replace the real world.
There are still two different strings of thought in your critic about MPL, one is a fundamental critic over the MPL program and the other the lack of experience of young ab-initios. As I know a lot of MPL *and* ab-initio guys, I can tell you that there is no difference. Quality of every single candidate is much greater, even if kept on the highest standards and rigorous qualification requirements.
When I look back, I started my airline training with about 400h, all of them done on SEL aircraft. I don't think that those hours really made me a better airline pilot. The real training started afterwards. Best training and thus the fundament for every professional pilot is the twin engine IFR flying. And a little bit of high performance aerobatics trainer doesn't hurt. These elements haven't been reduced significantly in MPL training.
We regularly get ab-initio FOs handed over from the training department. They are MPL or conventional trained, and they both have the same problem in the beginning, coming from the complex airline environment and lack of strategical and operational thinking. This gradually becomes better and - after a year or two - they start thinking with you, taking over also complex non-aircraft-related tasks. Compared to FOs with an extensive GA background, I don't see a big difference there. Even with thousands of hours on small planes and experience as GA flight instructors, they do generally not stand out from the ab-inito pilots. Also here, the individual quality of any candidate is much more important than its training background.
I think it also depends on how a flight academy lays out its MPL syllabusses. I don't know the exact legal framework, but I can imagine that there are better MPL courses and not so good ones. And I would imagine that a major airline would not do the absolute minimum laid down in the law. Above mentioned aerobatics trainer pops into my mind.
A general problem I can read between your lines (and I completly agree with it) is the lack of flying expertise of young ab-initios directly upgrading to a fbw computer controlled aircraft. But I guess that is how the future goes, and we cannot go back to the old days of rods and cables. But that is another topic.
Dani