Amen to that Harry. I do not agree with a lot of your stands, but here you are spot on.
I would like to add that besides the obvious low standard of experience or skill of some of the recruits, still a lot come in with adequate standards. But as you pointed out, the training mentality at EK then never stops to beat every common sense and handling skill out of them during the next few years. Not difficult to breed such failure rates for later when you try to upgrade them.
As of SP, well, you state the he is very good at highlighting weaknesses. Then he might apply this to himself and realize that his greatest weakness is his poor self esteem, paired with his blatant lack of aviation skill (not knowledge, mind you, there he excels) and a complete absence of peoples skill (CRM). He might then assess himself being the wrong man at the wrong position. He should try to clean up the documentation mess at EK. With his theoretical knowledge and being able to work alone in a hidden office, nicely on ground, that's where he belongs and where he would display his greatest value to the company.