aa73;
There CAN BE a correlation between experience and hours, but as someone pointed out earlier a lot depends on the type of experience and whether the pilot has actually learned from it or not.
I was very lucky back in the '80's and was sponsored through pilot training by a major carrier. After 200 hours of training (I already had 170 on a PPL) , 2500 hours of groundschool, and a huge amount of sweat I was sent off to do a twin jet course. My stick buddy was a 1350 hour Harrier pilot. I believe that I qualified in less time, and certainly had an easier ride through line training because I had no preconcieved ideas, he had lots more stick time, but more expectations of what should happen, he had experiences to compare it to, while I had none and just did as I was told without really analysing it.
The 200 hour tyro can be very good and the 10 000 hour captain can be a disaster, I personally believe that it comes down to the selection process, and would certainly bring a high level of aircrew selection into all the "self sponsored" training. Just because someone can afford the license it doesn't mean that they should be in the seat. Maybe it could be done with initial Class 1 medical issue, if you cant pass then you don't get a class one and therefore can't do the training.
With 200 hours I learned an enormous amount from highly experienced captains and from asking questions of other F/Os in the crew room. These days I find myself learning a lot from low time guys. The ground school has changed a lot and they come with a different type of knowledge. They can have very good input on the FD and I enjoy watching them realise that not all the theory is right, and that the learning curve is in fact nearly vertical.