Joe..
I completely agree with your last comment. There is nothing like experience.
I'd like to offer two points:
Firstly, with regard to skill level, even Tiger Woods regularly hires a golf pro to look at his swing. If he/she is serious about elevating his game, a pro should always seek the constructive advise of another pro. That is what I like to think happens during an upgrade: another pro looks at your swing and offers suggestions to help you improve it. I think that 99% of our trainers do just that.
Secondly, hiring experienced pilots is something we are doing less and less these days. Recruiting only Cadet and/or low time pilots dilutes our pool of experience. Yes, we all had 300 hours once....but I think that our recruiting system should be seeking to hire cadet pilots in proportion to skilled ones. Our managers have used the same arguments made by many on this thread to lower the recruiting bar.