PhoenixNZ
You'll understand one day.
It will probably be when guys like yourself are offering to do it for 40k instead of 60k using your same rational.
It may be when you're in the left seat and have to fly with these guys.
Yes, they know their theory and SOPs very well. No one I know has ever had issue with this. It's knowing when to apply this theory and use of SOPs which is the problem.
It's the lack of airmanship, the lack of piloting experience. It's all the small things which add up. Taxi lights on facing another aircraft at night. Strobes on entering a runway While another aircraft is in a flare passing. Blindly flying into a thunderstorm because ATC has not cleared left or right track miles. Reading the conditions, the way the air feels, the way it looks. That feeling deep down when you know something is not as it should be yet there is no indication to confirm it.
It's like comparing something made by a machine vs something handmade. A cadet is churned out by a machine, a traditional military/GA Pilot is hand crafted through operational experience. A pilot is a craftsman, and it takes years being handmade to call yourself one.
Is not something you can throw money at to attain. It's something you slowly become.
Once you are sitting in that airliner, you'll understand it. I promise you it will be all the more worthwhile.