Those loose nuts and faulty circuits might well have killed a lot more people than they already have if not for the guys sitting in the pointy end.
Here is some suggested reading for you:
Qantas Flight 32
US Airways Flight 1549
United Airlines Flight 232 (my personal favourite)
Why should pilots get paid more? Because when the bolts do come loose and the circuits do fail, the ground mechanics and the engineers aren't the ones who are 10 kilometers above the ground, struggling to control several hundred tons of metal and fuel hurtling through the atmosphere at speeds approaching mach 1.