The Bunglerat,
Nice to see some balance here. The truly scary cadetships are the ones where willingness to pay is more important than ability, minimum training is the benchmark, and they go on to fly airbuses on autopilot straight off course. I would rather a good cadet than the bottom applicant from GA next to me. However I would expect a reasonable body of experience in hand flying somewhere before they get to the auto pilot heavy world of jet RPT.
Several years ago, a younger me, mouthed off about Qantas cadets to an ex mil friend in Q. He set me straight on the quality of the majority of cadets he had flown with, having high praise for one in particular. On the other hand AF447 shows what happens to pilots who have minimal hand flying before they transition to the airbus.