I don't know why systems monitoring is talked about in such lofty tones. Focusing on such things to the detriment of basic instrument skills sounds like a recepie for an interesting and incident packed career. Flying an airliner is as much about needles and stick/rudder skills as it is about multi crew, automation and magenta lines.
In my view, neither CRM nor SOPs require anywhere near the same amount of effort to train as the basic ability to fly in challenging conditions and know what is going on within and around the aircraft. Clearly, doing this efficietly as a multi crew operation is different, but not to the extent that it is justifiable to reduce individual airmship, handling and navigation skills - the general buggeration factor cannot be effectively replicated in simulators.
Therefore, I maintain that properly selected and well trained modular indivduals would probably be a better bets. The clincher is the phrase pertaining to selection and training
