The CAA in their role of AOC oversight do indeed "give guidance" on experience levels required, and the mix of experience.
Now, time for a rant. "general flying and sops good", " lack of big picture and experience".
We are stick monkeys, if you have a licence and a type you should be able to fly. That ones a given.
SOPs. The ability to sing the company song to the letter does not make a good pilot. In these days of low timers in the right seat, sops have been tuned to become a set of "ques", ie when i say this you do that, and when you say this, i do that. A good pilot knows from experience what to do and when, and shouldn't need prompting. Thats the difference between a pilot and a machine operator.
When the poo hits the fan,"lack of big picture and experience" becomes a real problem, as they run out of ideas real fast. No bad reflection on them, they just don''t have the experience, and have been taught to rely on a book of instructions instead.
Sharing tales of barnstorming is a good way to impart knowledge, but there is no substitute for experience, and i would submit that the front row of a piece of heavy metal, with hundreds of lives relying on you, is not the best place to get it.
I remember when we used to teach ppls, from day one, to be captains. "Airline preparation" programmes seem to have a different focus these days.
End of rant.