HC - sadly, though I value your knowledgeable posts elsewhere, your view of SAR is typical of many who haven't actually done any of it.
The majority of SAR jobs are straightforward but a significant minority do require a skillset above and beyond basic hovering.
The auto hover is no use to you when the boat you are trying to get the winchman on is bouncing around in 40 plus kts and 5 metre seas (especially in the dark) - nor when you are holding max power to combat downdraughting and turbulence against a cliff face whilst the winchman extricates a badly injured climber from the mountains.
Inland/urban SAR can be equally challenging as those who have been to the major flooding incidents in the last few years can tell you and if you think the co-pilot's job in any of these conditions is easy then you really ought to have a go.
In many situations, the technology and automatics allow you to take yourself beyond your level of talent.
Those, like Al-bert, who have been there and done it, know that critical situations are not the place for inexperience because it can go wrong so quickly.
Yes, we have new boys and girls in the LHS but a. they are very well trained and tested (both as handling ad non-handling pilots) and b. that inexperience is highly diluted across the SAR Force.
If what lala rumours is true, the whole of the UK SAR force (or a very great proportion of it) would suddenly have LCR co pilots with next to no experience of helicopter flying in general and SAR in particular right across the board. Now tell me that is a safe strategy.