Please enlighten me as to how building flight time in a Cessna 172 is going to make me a better Captain or First Officer in a Boeing 777...
stop being stubborn KPHL!!!
... AQIS Boigu and lost&found are simply saying doing GA will make you a better FO and Cpt compared to being an FO and Cpt via SO without much experience. Even you should know that GA isn't just flying a 172 to build time. Things like bush flying, charter flying, SINGLE PILOT IFR TWIN TURBOPROP (now that will make one hell of a pilot!!!) are the GA these guys are referring to... you get the point now?
If anything being a SO will make you a better Captain or First Officer... you have had several years of following your colleagues in the flight deck and learning from them....
Not entirely true. So tell me this, lets say hypothetically a student only watches their instructor do everything, and not doing it themselves, then comes time for them to do their GFPT... how do you think the student will go?... similar concept to an SO, (yes sims do help but no where near as much as REAL experience)