SWH you don't work for CASA do you?
ICUS in spirit was intended for a Chief Pilot or Check/Supervisory Captain to line train another Captain for the purpose of checking them to the line.
ICUS only became a gray area when companies like Rex, employed cadets and low time (cheap) Pilots without the required experience for a command. When the companies needed to upgrade these (cheap) Copilots to Captains, they did/do not meet the minimum experience requirements. Due to this dilemma, ICUS has been pushed (and sold) as the magical solution (which also keeps them handing over money to be a (cheap) Pilot).
In reality modern interpretations (and demands) of ICUS are a new way of bypassing experienced Pilots who demand a fair days pay for that experience. Companies are now in favour of cheap inexperienced Pilots who are willing to ram a fist fill of cash to bypass a few years of hard work, locking them into the company with nowhere to go, while waiting hopefully for some ICUS. Pilots like myself (and others) went north and flew until the boxes were ticked for an ATPL. We then chased Turboprop jobs wherever we could, knowing a command was in reach when our number came up.
ICUS IMO really is a symbol of the rot in our industry. The sooner ICUS becomes what it was originally intended for, the sooner the experienced guys will be paid a fair wage for a fair days work.